Dimensions
by Licras
Summary: This is the original version of the second of my planned crossover series from two years ago, Dimensions. Naruto is suddenly ripped from his home dimension and brought this new strange world of jutsu-using creatures? Minor crossover, but Naruto being a part of the world isn't particularly relevant in any significant way. More in the A/N. CC pic. Discontinued atm.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: (Old) By the way, if you are interested in Pokémon fanfiction, you should read Ash Ketchum: Being More and enjoy what there is. Very high quality, that one is. That's where the inspiration for this entire first part came from for me. I will be testing a 'new' writing style, basically just spacing out descriptions and etc. I will be melding a variety of ideas that have come through many fanfics that I've read, so it seems familiar at some points/aspects, that's why. AU Universe, of course, events will be shifted as necessary to accommodate things~**

 **(New) Well, that portion above is a portion of an A/N I had written previously, when I first started writing this story. Present me is of course working on Harry Potter: Divergent Paths. If you'd like to read this, go for it, if not, well, you don't have to. If you think posting this somehow detracts from my current project, then please leave me a review with an argument to consider~ I also welcome reviews for this story, which I'll log for whenever I return and remake this story, if you'd like to do so. Otherwise, I'll be releasing portions of this story as I work on HP:DP, but don't worry, I won't shirk my work on the other :P**

 **Dimensions**

Naruto's eyes snapped open. He looked down at himself, noticing that he was now an ethereal blue spirit. " **So, you are the one that was sent to be my Chosen."**

Naruto flipped around and found himself facing a rather peculiar creature. It was a quadruped, with a primarily white body, golden 'hooves' and 'attachment' on its stomach, and a black underbelly and face. It was hard to describe. "Who are you?"

" **My name is Arceus, the Alpha** **Pokémon. Isn't it polite to introduce yourself first?** " the 'Pokémon' asked with a smirk, from what the blonde could tell.

"Oh, sorry, I was just kind of dazed…my name is Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto," he said with a grin.

Arceus gave him a look of confusion. " **Your first name is Uzumaki-Namikaze?** "

"No, it's Naruto! Hm…this world must follow the Western way of naming," Naruto hummed, thinking back to a few books that Eika had brought over when she arrived. "Well, whatever. My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, then. So, why was I brought here?"

Arceus projected images of the world to Naruto, showing him multiple images of the world out there. " **This is the world of Pokémon. I am the Sovereign, the creator of all life in this world. Pokémon are the creatures of this world, each possessing their own unique powers. Humans treat the Pokémon in a variety of ways…partners, friends, companions…slaves, pets, tools and weapons,** " Arceus explained, growling at the last bit.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows in anger. "Why would anybody do that? From what I can see, Pokémon are beautiful creatures, worthy of awe and cherishing. They're even stronger than must humans from what I can tell, how could anyone…"

Arceus looked at the spirit with surprise. ' _Already, he has shown competence for this role,'_ she thought to herself. " **That is why you were brought here. For many years, I slumbered, leaving the world in the care of the Legendary Pokémon and the humans. The Legendaries have roamed in the world and lost faith in humanity…too little show appreciation and care for their companions. And I feel that the world will soon be encroached upon by evil forces. The Pokémon need a champion, to represent us and stand by our sides."**

"And I'm supposed to be this champion?" Naruto said tentatively.

" **Yes. However, first…I would ask permission to your memories. You may deny and I will return you to whence you came. But, in order to fully trust you as our Chosen, I must understand you and know your past,** " Arceus stated.

Naruto contemplated this for a moment. _'I guess there's no better way to see if I'm good enough than to have her judge me personally,'_ he thought to himself. "Of course. Go ahead, Arceus."

The creator of all Pokémon lowered herself and tapped her head against Naruto's. The spirit remained there in silence, not particularly sure how to move anyway. Naruto continued to watch the projection Arceus provided earlier, as it hadn't stopped yet. He watched the Pokémon in awe. They shot elemental beams, manipulated nature, healed injuries, and worked alongside humans. He was already starting to like this place.

After about ten or so more minutes, Arceus began to stir. The Pokémon opened her eyes and Naruto saw an emotion present. Respect. " **I have made my judgment. It would be an honor to have you as the Chosen of Pokémon."**

Naruto smiled and shook his head. "I'd much rather be called a Friend of Pokémon if anything, Arceus!"

The large Pokémon chuckled. " **That is what I would expect from you.** "

"So, how am I going to start out?" Naruto asked, finally ready to get to business.

" **First of all, I will cloak your memories of your last world from any other Pokémon attempts to read your mind. The experience you gained might help you, but others need not know about that. I will also disconnect your personality from your past experiences. I plan on implanting your soul into the body of a newborn child, so it would be beneficial for you to mentally develop without the hardened war veteran personality in place. How do you plan on proceeding?** " Arceus questioned, referring to how Naruto would spend his time in the world.

Naruto put his hand to his chin in a thinking pose, tapping his feet. His eyes flickered to the projection again as two people stood across from each other, a large arena in-between. They threw small red and white orbs that opened and expelled a white light. Two Pokémon stood in front of each trainer, as a referee started the match. They flew into action.

"I think I'll become a Pokémon Trainer…what better way to understand them than to work side-by-side with them, companions in battle?" Naruto stated, flames burning in his eyes.

" **Do you want to keep your memories as you grow up in the world? Or would you like me to seal them until you start your journey as a Trainer?** " Arceus asked.

"I'll keep them. I have a lot to learn as I grow up, if I want to become a good trainer!"

Arceus smiled at Naruto. " **Of course, my Chosen. You will have to work hard. Good luck on your journey. I will be watching.** " With that, Naruto felt his vision fading again, though his consciousness did not.

He heard wailing in extremely close proximity. When he finally regained sight, he found himself looking into tired amber eyes. "What are you going to name him?" a voice nearby said.

"I think I'll name him…Ash. My baby, Ash…" the woman holding him said.

"Ash Ketchum…that's a good name, Delia."

He finally realized that he was now a baby again. The very start of a new life. From what he saw of the current world, there weren't any wars…just Pokémon battles and contests. He could relive his childhood. His body instinctively wailed the wail of a newborn child and he took his new name to heart. The name resonated with him deeply. He was Ash Ketchum.

…..

 _Seven years later… Rota, Kanto Region._

A black hair, brown-eyed boy walked around the city with his auburn hair, amber-eyed mother. "This festival is so wonderful! Don't you think so, dear?"

"Yeah, it's awesome here! There're so many Pokémon walking around too!" Ash shouted enthusiastically. "Can we go watch the tournament, mom?"

"Of course, honey. Let's go," Delia said with a smile on her face. The two Ketchums were enjoying their vacation immensely. "You know, it was a really good idea for us to come out. I missed being able to travel around," she said with a melancholic smile on her face.

Ash frowned for a second before smiling again. He walked around to in front of his mom and gave her a hug. "Mom, if you want to travel more, just do it! I love traveling! You don't need to hold back for me!"

The woman smiled at her son and hugged back. "Thank you, Ash…you mean the world to me."

…..

' _Why…did you betray me?'_

Ash shook his head in confusion, looking for the source of the sound. "Is something wrong, dear?" Delia asked in worry.

"Oh, no, it's nothing, mom. Don't worry about it." He returned his gaze to the people dancing in the ballroom. _'_ _ **Chosen…**_ _'_

' _Arceus, is that you?'_ Ash thought in surprise, having not heard from the Legendary in years.

' _ **Of course, it is… Who else would it be? Regardless, the first step of your path has been laid out. Follow your instincts, listen closely,**_ _'_ he said cryptically.

The presence in his mind vanished, leaving Ash to mull over the meaning of Arceus's words. _'What is that even supposed to mean?'_

…..

' _Where…where am I?'_

Lucario woke with a start. The armies would arrive at any moment to fight on Cameran soil. And his master had betrayed him.

Sir Aaron had abandoned him and betrayed Queen Rin. Left the palace defenseless. Lucario had followed his master, hopeful that he would have a plan. Only to be denounced as a student and trapped within the gem of his staff.

' _The staff!'_

The thought of his prison evoked more painful memories, feelings of rage and sadness. He shook his head, straightened out his priority. He needed to get out and help the Queen.

Lucario extended his vision to the outside, Aura Sight active. He saw the inner auras of the people within the room. He scanned through the people within the room. The one holding the staff was ordinary. The one across the room was powerful.

The strength of the aura shocked Lucario. Its signature resembled his master's own…it was almost easy to mistake it for Sir Aaron himself.

If the aura wasn't that of a child's. It made the strength of the aura even stranger. His mind entertained the thought of his master having a child with an unknown woman, but dismissed it.

He returned his attention back to the situation at hand. There was only one way to escape. The staff would only react to his master's aura. The near identical Aura signature nearby would hopefully work. The amount of Aura it was naturally giving off would be more than enough to give off.

Now, he just needed to focus. Lucario began to reach out to the Aura. He would form a telepathic connection. That would be the best way to ensure his success.

…..

While Ash had lost the physical capabilities of his previous body, he could still make use of many of his skills that transitioned. Starting from five, he had been able to sense a strange form of energy in the world and within himself. There was an abundance of it within himself. He just didn't know what it was.

Ash suddenly felt something breach his mind, but permitted its connection. If it was a threat, he would reject it.

' _Hello, can you hear me?'_ a voice whispered into his mind.

Ash maintained his external façade of calm, though he was somewhat startled. _'Yes, I can. Who are you?'_

Lucario was surprised. For a child, he had expected a larger delay, a more hesitant response. And for the response to come back verbally. _'My name is Lucario. I desperately need your help. Would you aid me?'_

Ash located the connection. It was to the staff. The staff of Sir Aaron…but more specifically, the gem. He quickly put together the legend of Sir Aaron and this voice. _'You're Lucario, Sir Aaron's faithful companion.'_

Ash heard a snarl, which caused him to raise an eyebrow for a second, before he instantly returned to his façade. _'He is no companion of mine! He is a traitor! He betrayed me, betrayed Queen Rin, and betrayed the kingdom! He abandoned me!'_

The venom in Lucario's voice was obvious. A few things clicked. _'Do you know what time it is?'_ Silence. _'You've been gone for a long time, Lucario. The war is over…Sir Aaron stopped it.'_

' _What are you talking about?! It was only minutes ago that I was trapped in here! What do you know, child?!'_

' _I'm sorry Lucario, but it's the truth…you have to believe me. Time has passed…it's been over thousand years since Sir Aaron died…'_ Queen Ilene ended the party then, dismissing the remaining guests from the party. Delia began to lead Ash back to the hotel. _'I'm returning to my hotel now. I'll return to the Palace to release you from your prison soon.'_

Ash followed his mom cheerfully, keeping the internal conversation hidden. He said goodnight to his mom and closed the door. He waited for his mother's door to shut before he made his move. Lucario had been silent the whole time.

' _Would…would you please tell me of what has happened to the world while I have been gone? I need to know…'_ he finally requested after a long period of silence.

Ash nodded solemnly. He began to explain the story of Sir Aaron as it had been passed down. The development of the Pokémon world. The rise of trainers, breeders, coordinators, and other things associated with Pokémon.

…..

The world as he knew it was gone. No more war, no bands of mercenaries, no need for protectors. Cameron Palace and the royal line of the kingdom were all that remained of ages past.

The boy, Ash, had been wise beyond his age and passionate in his re-telling of the story. The story of Sir Aaron's sacrifice to save Cameran Palace left him with a medley of emotions.

Disgust at the renown of a traitor, anger at the cowardice of his former master…

Hope that it was all true and that there was something else going on. Ash, at the very least, seemed to be trying his best to help him feel better. Lucario smiled. There was something about the child that he liked.

Ash easily found his way back to the castle, but needed aid after that. Lucario guided the boy through ancient secret passageways in the castle, eventually leading him into the room with the staff.

' _Grasp the staff please. I can handle the rest. As a warning, this might be tiring.'_

Ash nodded and firmly grasped the polished wood. He immediately felt a drain on that strange shroud of energy around him as it siphoned into the staff.

As he waited for the process to complete, Ash thought back to the compiled entry that Professor Oak had on Lucario as a species. _'Lucario, the Aura Pokémon. It has the ability to sense the Aura of all things. It can understand human speech. By catching the Aura emanating from others, it can read their thoughts, movements, and feelings.'_

Aura. That's what the energy was. Ash could feel the process coming to an end. A beam of white light erupted from the gem and hit the ground next to Ash. The white energy swirled before finally materializing into the shape of Lucario.

Lucario smiled at the boy standing in front of him. _"Thank you, Ash. You've been of great help,"_ the Pokémon said sincerely with his Aura Voice.

Ash grinned at Lucario. "No problem!" He tilted his head slightly in confusion. "What's with the echo?"

" _Oh, that would be my Aura Voice. I cannot actually use human speech, however with Aura, I can translate my speech for humans to understand,"_ Lucario explained.

Ash's eyes sparkled with curiosity, but he decided to get back to more serious business. "So, what are you going to do now?"

" _I…need to see if what the legends said were true. I need to see if Sir Aaron really did save the kingdom…"_

Ash looked at the dog-like Pokémon's eyes and saw the anxiety in his eyes. "And how will you do that?"

" _I will head to the Tree of Beginning…but first, I will come with you to your mother. I feel that both of you deserve a more in-depth explanation."_

…..

"Ash, honey, are you in there?" Delia asked in concern. She couldn't hear the characteristic snoring of her son, meaning that he wasn't asleep, if present at all. She had woken up early, considering how late the party went on last night. Upon checking for her son, she hadn't found him. She moved downstairs and into the kitchen.

To her relief, Ash was sitting at the dinner table, as energetic as ever. He had always been a little ball of energy, seemingly impossible to tire out. "Good morning, mom!"

"Good morning, dear. Did you rest well?" the mother asked softly with a smile.

Ash smiled and nodded, "Of course, I always do!" His expression fell slightly, surprising Delia. A tinge of guilt dotted his face. "I have something I need to tell you though. You might want to sit down."

Worry entered her mind, but she sat down regardless. "Are you ok, honey? Is something wrong?"

Ash waved it off. "No, I'm perfectly healthy and fine, mom. Last night, I…well, you wouldn't believe me if I just told you. Lucario, could you come out and explain it?"

Delia tilted her head in confusion. Who was this Lucario? The sound of shuffling brought her attention to the other part of the kitchen, where a blue, dog-like, bipedal Pokémon stood.

" _My name is Lucario. I asked your son for help yesterday night."_

Delia's eyes widened with shock at hearing a human voice come from what was definitely a Pokémon. The last words of his sentence clicked with her. Any apprehension and fear left her body at that moment. It was replaced with maternal fury, concern, and confidence. Lucario was impressed at the woman's courage. The people in his own time tended to be afraid to even look at him.

"What did you need my son for in the middle of the night?" she asked angrily, steel in her voice.

"Mom, calm down. I went willingly and I trust him. Just listen to his story," Ash interjected and moving to sit in her lap. He gave her a hug as she calmed down to the gesture.

" _Would it be ok if I took a seat? This story may take a while to tell."_

Delia looked to her son, finding reassurance. She nodded.

" _I am Lucario, and as you may know me, the companion of 'Sir' Aaron."_ Delia glanced at her son for confirmation, to which she received a nod. " _I have been sealed away for over thousand years, from what Ash tells me. I needed Ash because the staff required an Aura similar to that of my master's. Ash's fit the purpose, though his own Aura is much stronger than I have ever seen. That is why I requested the aid of your son."_

Lucario paused for a moment, allowing everybody to gather their thoughts. "Why did you say Sir Aaron's name with such venom?" Delia asked in confusion, having heard the slight undertone.

Lucario sighed and lowered his head. _"You no doubt know the tale of Sir Aaron that portrays him as the hero that sacrificed himself to save Cameran Palace and its lands. The last meeting I had with my master convinced me to think otherwise. However, I no longer know the truth. I do not know what to believe."_

Delia frowned, but nodded her head. If the companion of Sir Aaron himself thought that there may be something awry, she would not be one to question it. "So, what will you do, now that you are free?" she asked cautiously.

" _I will head to the Tree of Beginning. I believe I will find the answers I seek there. I must know the truth,"_ Lucario answered with determination.

"Do you need any food, Lucario? We can help you," Ash offered.

" _No, I will live off the land as I go. You have aided me enough, Ash. I owe you my freedom and life,"_ he responded. _"How long with you two be staying?"_

"We'll be staying for another week and a half before we return to Pallet Town, our home. Why?" Delia asked.

" _I should be able to return on time…If I do, I will teach Ash to utilize his Aura. It would be a shame to allow such potential go to waste and it is the least I could do to repay you._ "

"Will it be dangerous?" Delia asked in worry.

" _No, it is his own energy. It will not harm him. Does that sound like a good idea?"_

"Yea! That sounds awesome!" Ash shouted in excitement.

Lucario chuckled and opened one of the kitchen windows. " _I will leave now. I believe I will be back before you depart,"_ he said curtly before leaping out.

His strengthened body carried him onto a distant rooftop as he began to stride towards his goal. He crossed multiple buildings at a time, closing in on his final destination. The place where his answers would be found. The Tree of Beginning.

' _Sir Aaron…what really happened?'_

…..

Lucario wasted no time in his hurry for the truth. He had dashed past the various hills and valleys easily. He scaled the Tree of Beginning carefully, heading towards the Core. The beauty of the Tree surpassed his ability to describe.

Lucario finally reached the Core of the tree, unhindered. It was a breath-taking sight.

Gigantic blue-green crystals littered the walls, ceiling, and floor, elegantly. The floor itself was composed of smooth, glass-like crystals.

The middle of the room held the centerpiece of it all. A gigantic, crystalline structure rose from the floor, majestic and imposing. Bright energy pulsated upwards from the structure and into the tree, supplying the tree with its energy.

Lucario hesitantly stepped forward, looking for traces of his master. His eyes locked onto a single item.

The gloves of Sir Aaron, carrying the mark of an Aura Guardian, hung from a smaller crystal formation next to the large crystal formation. _'Sir Aaron…he was here,'_ Lucario thought as he walked over to the pair and kneeled down.

His Aura senses screamed at him as they had been ever since he entered the room. But, now, he felt something more familiar. He looked at the large crystals directly in front of him. Instinctively, Lucario formed an Aura Sphere and a figure within the crystal pulsated in response.

" _Sir Aaron…it is you,"_ Lucario whispered in awe. He scanned his surroundings and located a familiar flora. A Time Flower. He put a paw to the miracle of nature as it expanded and displayed its contents.

The Time Flower twisted open to release its contained orb of light. It expanded to engulf the room in its memory, overlapping the room in black and white. His answers would come soon, he could feel.

Suddenly, Sir Aaron rushed into the room, anxiety adorning his face. "Where are you?! Mew! I need your help!"

The call and screeching cry of a bird rang out into the room. Lucario looked up to see a black and white Ho-Oh perched on a hole in the roof of the cavern. Its body glowed white for a second before shifting back into the shape of Mew. It flew down to Sir Aaron, a smile of relief on his face. His expression immediately steeled itself as he prepared for his duty.

"Mew, I realize that you and this tree are one! Please, take the power of my Aura to save the people! Now, accept the Aura!" Sir Aaron shouted, placing a hand to the Legendary Pokémon.

Lucario gasped in recognition of what would happen next.

Aura siphoned out from his body in the form of a sphere. The crystal of his glove began to glow. "The power of Aura will prevail!" he cried out as the sphere enlarged to engulf Mew.

The gigantic orb of energy swirled around the Legendary Pokémon who closed its eyes in order to channel the offered energies.

Sir Aaron's body glowed, static electricity seeming to run across his body as his body fought and crackled in order to expel the Aura from within him. Sir Aaron was giving all of his Aura to Mew, prepared to forfeit his life in the process. A tear formed in Lucario's eye.

With a final cry of exertion from Sir Aaron, another orb of energy expelled from Mew, exploding to flood the room in bright green light.

" _Sir Aaron!"_ Lucario shouted as he reached out towards the memory of his master.

The vision stopped as the room regained its color. The Time Flower closed, retrieving the light of memory's past. Lucario's paw remained in the air, yearning to contact with his former master. After a few more seconds of coming to terms, he lowered it.

The Aura Pokémon turned to look at the large crystal formation. He kneeled in front of the trapped form of Sir Aaron, the remnant signature of his Aura. Sorrow and regret filled his mind as tears gathered in his eyes. He placed both of his palms against the crystal in mourning.

His master gave his life to save the kingdom just as the story told. He had believed him to be a traitor and coward who had abandoned him.

" _Forgive me for ever doubting you, master…"_ Lucario whispered, voice cracking with grief. He slumped against the crystal in sorrow. Drips and sobs sounded out in the otherwise silent chamber. His tears fell to the ground fluidly and he grieved for his master. He drowned out the world around him.

A tiny presence floated around in front of him, unfelt as Lucario mourned. _'Don't cry,'_ a tiny voice whispered into his mind.

Lucario's head snapped up in shock. His tear-filled eyes widened in shock at the being floating before him. The embodiment of the Tree of Beginning: Mew.

Mew floated towards him. The Legendary's innocent eyes were stained with sorrow for Lucario.

' _Your master died a hero. He gave his life to save the tree and the people he was sworn to protect. It was a fitting end for a man as honorable as Sir Aaron,'_ Mew said, directly into the Aura Pokémon's mind.

" _I…I believed him to be a coward! I hated him! I despised him! I spoke his name with venom and anger! How could I have doubted the man who trained me to become the warrior I am? How can I ever forgive myself?!"_ he responded. His energy left his body, his voice dropping to a pain-filled murmur. " _How can I ever attain my master's forgiveness?"_

Mew smiled knowingly. _"You don't need to attain forgiveness, Lucario. Your master cared for you like few people could ever hope to even imagine. He would forgive you in a heartbeat."_

" _How could you know that?"_ Lucario whispered quietly.

Mew pointed with her arms to the side, towards another Time Flower. One that Lucario hadn't seen. _'Find out yourself.'_

Lucario reached a paw out to activate the Time Flower, but hesitated. His eyes shifted to Mew again, who gestured for him to continue. He lightly tapped the flower.

The Time Flower twisted open and proceeded to play the recorded memory, engulfing the room in black and white again.

Sir Aaron materialized next to Lucario, startling the Aura Pokémon. The Aura Guardian leaned against a smaller crystal formation for a moment, before slumping down against his. His body glowed a sickly green and energy crackled on his body. He struggled with the pain, groaning in pain, before looking off to the distance. Sorrow and regret filled his eyes.

"Lucario…forgive me."

The words resonated with the Aura Pokémon, who felt as if Sir Aaron was directly speaking to him. " _I do, master…"_

"Please understand, Lucario…I had to seal you inside of the staff," Aaron began, as if he knew that Lucario would at some point stumble into the Time Flower. "I knew that if I didn't, you would follow me here and suffer the same fate. I only wish…you could have known the real story."

Lucario stumbled forward in sorrow. " _I understand, master!"_ he shouted, wishing that he could convey his feelings to his master.

"One day," Sir Aaron continued, "someone will release you from that staff, in a distant and more peaceful time…What will it be like?" He paused to smile. "I wonder if-" He cried out in a pain as a stronger pulse of energy crackled through his body.

"I…have no regrets…My journey…has been good. I served….a beautiful queen…and you and I shared many adventures," Sir Aaron said with a smile, closing his eyes and leaning back against the crystal. "Those memories will always be with me."

More tears gathered in Lucario's eyes as he clenched his fist in anguish, wishing to be there with his master. _"Master,"_ Lucario whispered. He shook with tears, his body tremored with sobs. _"If only you could hear me…I would tell you how much you mean to me…"_

"Lucario…farewell…" Sir Aaron whispered as his body trembled under the stress. "You were more to me than just my student…you were…and _are_ my closest friend."

" _I feel the same,"_ Lucario sobbed.

"Who knows…it could be…" Sir Aaron said as he opened his eyes. They were clouded with tears. "One day…we could see each other again." He closed his eyes, a single tear running down his cheek, smile never wavering. "But, Lucario…if you do see this final message, however far in the future you are…I want you to have more adventures…with more people…live your life to the fullest…for yourself…and for me. We might even see each other again." Sir Aaron's body began to fade. "I hope so, my friend…" His body disappeared, becoming one with the Tree of Beginning, merging into the crystals and supplying them with power.

The memory vanished.

Streams of tears ran down his face uncontrollably. His master and…friend deserved this tribute. He knelt down in front of Sir Aaron's resting place, sobbing into the ground. " _Sir Aaron, my friend…I'm sorry for not letting you down…"_

' _You haven't let him down,'_ Mew whispered mentally. _'He knew that you would become confused, hurt, and look for answers. That wasn't just a farewell…it was a message. This just proves how much he cared for you."_ Mew looked down at Lucario and smiled. _'Honor his memory, Lucario. Live your life and be happy.'_

Lucario glanced at the tiny Legendary. " _How…how am I supposed to do that? I have nothing left…nothing to live for…I have no place in this time, nobody left that I know,"_ he murmured, looking to her for an answer.

' _You have indeed gone through great loss, Lucario. However, the friendships and bonds you've made with Sir Aaron and the people back in your own time haven't disappeared. As long as you live on, they will be right alongside with you. The affection you felt for them is still there inside of you…and you can use that affection to make new bonds and friendships. I believe you've already started to make a bond with somebody.'_

The image of a black-haired, energetic boy flickered in Lucario's mind. _"Ash…"_ Lucario whispered as he collected himself. Mew was right.

' _Yes…the boy who reminds you of Sir Aaron, who has already wormed a place in your heart with his kind and gentle soul.'_ Mew beamed at the Aura Pokémon. _'Go to him, Lucario…he will be your first friend in this new world...'_

Lucario nodded and smiled at Mew. _"Thank you, Mew."_ He glanced at Sir Aaron's form one last time and gave it a sad, but strong smile. _"Thank you, my friend…I will never forget you and I will do you proud."_ Lucario began his stride, collect his master's gloves and bolting from the chamber, leaving Mew behind.

Mew gave one last smile at the retreating figure of Lucario. _'Look after him and make him stronger. He's gonna need all the help he can get to prepare for this new world. Isn't that right, mother?'_ Mew thought.

' **Yes, my daughter. He will need the power of Aura in his journeys. Is your sister ready for her duty?** _'_ Arceus asked.

' _Yes…it will go as you said, father. Our Chosen…do you really think he will be able to change the world?'_

' _ **I know he will.**_ _'_

…..


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: (Old) A lot of the following section is based off of the portrayal from the fanfiction** _ **Ash Ketchum: Being More**_ **by The Orion Writer and of the movie itself, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. I do recommend watching the movies, if you haven't already, and reading The Orion Writer's story, I do enjoy it so.**

 **(New) I was skimming through this as I was cutting it out for posting and I cringed a couple of times… I think I was a tad too excited when I was writing this, so I skimped out on some details. My bad, friends. :P Well, whenever I get back to writing Pokémon, you can be assured that I** _ **should**_ **have less grammatical and detail errors :D Anyway, enjoy!**

' _The Aura is with me!'_ Lucario incanted mentally, activating his Aura Sight. He scanned the city for Ash, finding him with ease. There were no other Aura signatures as large as his. He was happy to see that the two were currently in their hotel room, out of the view of regular humans.

Lucario dashed on the rooftops, striding about on his way to Ash. He clenched Sir Aaron's gloves tightly. He had not stopped mourning his lost friend, having cried a few times on his way back. But, he would move on, like Sir Aaron wanted him to. He would make new friends, live his life to the fullest. He swore to himself that he would succeed…and he would make Sir Aaron proud.

Smiling, Lucario knocked on the kitchen window that he had departed from. Delia came to the window and opened it, surprise on her face.

Ash turned from the sofa, where he was reading some books on Pokémon, to see the Aura Pokémon. He broke out into a grin, happy to see Lucario return. "Welcome back, Lucario! Did you find what you wanted?" Ash asked, referring to the Aura Pokémon's journey to find out the truth. Delia listened intently.

Lucario smiled sadly, in memory of his master. _"I'm glad to say that I was wrong…Sir Aaron really was a hero. The greatest hero there ever was."_

Ash and Delia both smiled at him, both also noticing the undertone in his voice. The mother-son duo locked eyes for a moment, nodding to each other. They walked up to Lucario and hugged him simultaneously. "I'm glad for you, Lucario. I really am," Ash said earnestly.

Lucario's eyes widened at the gesture and suddenly, he felt all of his tension leave his body. For the first time in six days, he relaxed and felt tired…but safe. " _Thank you both…if you don't mind, I would like to rest. Would you two mind if I stayed here with you?"_

"Of course, Lucario. You're welcome to stay with us as long as you like," Delia said with a warm smile.

Lucario's eyes lit up, not expecting to be welcomed so quickly. Tears threatened to gather up in his eyes again, but he held them back, smiling instead. " _Thank you…both. Ash…I would like you to take these."_ Lucario handed the gloves he held to the young child.

"What are these?" Ash asked, treating the pair of gloves delicately.

" _Those…are my master's gloves. The gloves of Sir Aaron. They helped him with focusing his Aura. I think both Sir Aaron and I would agree in giving them to you."_

Ash looked at the gloves with awe. "I'll take good care of them. Thank you, Lucario," he said seriously.

Lucario nodded in thanks to the child. " _I'd like to rest now, if you don't mind."_

"Of course, you can sleep in Ash's room." Ash nodded affirmatively to his mother's statement.

…..

" _One thing you must understand, Ash, is that learning how to control Aura takes years of effort. The most I would be able to teach you before you return to Pallet Town is how to feel its presence and access it. Anything else would take too long,"_ Lucario stated.

"Really? That kind of sucks." Ash frowned.

Lucario thought about the proposition lurking at the forefront of his mind. Would they accept? What if they didn't? He hesitated, but steeled himself. _'Ash, I will teach you as much as I can about Aura, but that will take time. Time that we do not have…if I stay here, that is."_ Ash was confused for a moment, before understanding what he meant. He grinned. Delia remained confused, so Lucario continued after taking a deep breath. _"There's nothing here for me anymore. Ash seems to understand what I mean. Everything I once knew is gone from here, as I am a remnant of the past. If it is alright with you, Ms. Ketchum, I would like to come with you and your son."_

Delia gasped in surprise, while Ash broke into an ear-splitting grin. The mother looked to her son. "Please, mom? I'd love it if he came along," he said pleadingly. He had a feeling she would say yes though.

Delia thought about the advantages and disadvantages. Lucario would be able to teach Ash how to defend himself, which would be helpful in her son's ambition to become a Pokémon trainer. Also, Aura was an innate part of him. He had to right to learn how to use it. Lucario wouldn't be a burden to bring along, either. He was obviously self-sufficient. There were no disadvantages she could think about. It was indeed an easy decision.

"We'd love to have you along," Delia said with a smile.

He turned to Ash and was somewhat shocked by the differences. The child had Sir Aaron's gloves on and his usual smile on his face. However, his eyes burned with determination that seemed unnatural in a child. The crystals on the gloves grew brighter as blue aura coated his hands.

"I'll make you and Sir Aaron proud, Lucario. That's a promise."

Lucario determined then and there that Ash was special. He would do everything he could to help Ash on his path to greatness. He would mentor Ash in the ways of the Aura, help him in understanding Pokémon, and anything else he needed. He swore it on his life.

Ash's stomach suddenly rumbled loudly, a blush appearing on his face. "Couldn't go long without breakfast, could you dear?" Delia giggled, moving to the kitchen. Lucario chuckled.

"Hey Lucario?" The Aura Pokémon looked over to Ash. The young trainer's hands still glowed with his Aura as he extended them to Lucario, open for a handshake. "Friends?"

Lucario smiled as he reached over and shook Ash's hand. _"Friends."_

…..

 _Ash Ketchum – Age 8_

 _Kanto Region, Summer Camp…_

"Hey! Everybody! Where is everybody!" the girl shouted.

Suddenly, the bush rustled, startling her. She turned to run, but tripped, screaming slightly as she fell. She lay on the ground in fear as the bush rustled more, when a Poliwag suddenly jumped out. It looked around for a few seconds. She looked at the little Pokémon in fear, recoiling back slightly, when it looked at her. It jumped off soon after.

Her eyes watered from the pain she felt from her knee and fear she felt being alone. "T-that's why I didn't even want to come to this camp," she whimpered as her tears pooled up. "Mama!" she cried out as her tears dripped onto her face.

The bushes rustled some more, startling her again. _'I just want to go home…'_ she thought, closing her eyes in fear and leaking more tears down her cheeks.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" a voice called out. Her eyes snapped open to see a tanned boy with black hair and brown eyes. "Hi, my name's Ash!" His eyes wandered down to her leg. "Oh, you're hurt…"

He walked over to the girl on the ground, taking out a blue handkerchief that he had in his pocket. _'I don't have anything to actually fix her with…but I can still help!'_ "Here, this should help a little!" He tied the handkerchief neatly around her leg. She tried to move.

"Ow! It still hurts," she whimpered. "I still can't get up…!"

Ash smiled softly at the girl. "Never give up until the end. Here, I'll help you up." He took her by the hand and brought her in, standing her up, but bringing her into his arms. He hugged her to comfort her slightly, a blush coming onto her face. "See, you stood!"

She looked down at herself, surprised that she wasn't feeling that much pain after all. "Come on, let's get back to the campsite!"

"T-thank you. My name is Serena…" she stammered, being led along by the hand.

Ash could feel her hand warming up, easily hearing the embarrassment in her voice. "Nice to meet you, Serena! I don't think I've seen you around here before. Are you from another region?"

"Y-yea, I'm from the Kalos Region…my mom wanted to move here to see if it would be a good place to stay, so we're here for the summer," Serena answered.

"That's pretty cool. What's Kalos like?" Ash asked, feeling strangely at peace with this girl he just met.

For the rest of the way back to the campsite, the two children continued to chat, Serena slowly opening up for the first time that summer.

…..

 _Ash Ketchum – Age 9_

 _Kanto Region, Pallet Town…_

" _You are a very strange child, you are aware of that, right?"_ Lucario said, eyebrows raised at Ash.

"Pssh… I have no idea what you're talking about," Ash replied nonchalantly.

" _You're doing one-handed handstands with two large rocks balanced on both feet…"_

"It's just training, I'm sure you've done stuff like this before."

" _Yes…but I am a Pokémon…you are a human."_

Ash shrugged in response, kicking off the rocks and flipping back onto his feet. "Oh, I'm sure anybody could do it with proper training."

" _You also wield Aura like its second nature to you. Along with the fact that you seem to be able to use Aura to simulate Pokémon moves and other types, you are probably more adept with it than I am…_ " Lucario deadpanned.

"I'm not sure how much I'm authorized to tell you about that," Ash responded, whistling innocently. Aura wasn't entirely different from the nature of chakra, so it didn't take much effort to get the hang of.

' _ **Oh, I thought this might come up at some point. Your Pokémon can be told of your true purpose, Chosen. Conceal it from humans, however,**_ _"_ boomed Arceus into their minds.

Lucario's eyes widened in shock, receiving a vision of the creator. He turned to Ash, who was nervously scratching the back of his head and laughing. "Wow, you have a talent for popping in conveniently, Arceus."

Lucario immediately knelt in front of Ash, who frowned. " _Forgive me for not knowing, Chosen, I-"_

"Lucario, stop that right now. You're my friend, not any servant or subordinate. You should know better than that," Ash immediately snapped.

The tone of the boy's voice stood Lucario up immediately. The Aura Pokémon looked apologetic. " _I apologize, Ash. I should have known better, my friend…"_

He waved it off. "Well, whatever…guess that's one way to break the ice on that subject."

Arceus chuckled to herself in the Hall of Origin, watching her Chosen.

…..

 **A/N: For anybody who's curious, he's still wearing the same clothes he does in the show, plus Sir Aaron's gloves. I guess you can say he's around the same height as Gary, or a tad taller. Rather attractive, all you need to imagine~**

 _Ash Ketchum – Age 10_

 _Kanto Region, Pallet Town…_

A green sphere of energy smashed into the ground, narrowly avoided by Ash. Ash suddenly vanished from his vision, forcing Lucario to immediately switch to Aura Sight.

Before he could react, Ash closed in and kicked twice in succession, legs coated in white energy. The attack slammed into Lucario's chest, knocking him back savagely.

"Ash! If you don't get going, you're going to be late!" Delia called out from the kitchen.

"Ok, mom! Just a minute!" Ash yelled back. "Guess we're done for now, Lucario."

" _Thank Arceus for small mercies…the strength you possess for a human still astounds me,"_ the Aura Pokémon stated, rubbing his chest. " _Thank you for holding back."_

"No point in injuring my friend, right? Come on, let's get going. I don't want to miss my big day!" Ash yelled excitedly. Lucario nodded and tapped the Pokéball on his belt, disappearing in a flash of red light. "Well, better get there quickly." Ash's eyes glowed blue as Sir Aaron's gloves flew over to his hands. He flashed white and disappeared from the yard.

…..

Ash entered through the door to the Pokémon Ranch, deciding to avoid the forward path. Too many people to potentially see him. He thought he heard cheerleaders too. Probably Gary. "Hey, Professor Oak, are you in here?"

"Over here!" the old man called out.

Ash walked over to the center of the Lab, seeing the three Pokémon that were normally given out to beginners. "Hi Professor Oak, I hope I wasn't too late. Though, from what I can see, it appears that they're all taken," he observed, looking at the Pokéballs with his Aura Sight.

They were empty.

"Hehehe…" Professor Oak laughed nervously. "Sorry about that Ash. But don't worry, I have the perfect Pokémon just for you!"

A Pokéball rose out of the middle of the Starter Pokémon table, with a little lightning bolt mark on it. Ash raised an eyebrow. "Why did you have that specifically there if it wasn't prepared beforehand?"

"Uh, don't worry about that Ash. Anyway, fair warning, the Pokémon inside is pretty feisty. Any other trainer that had him before always returned him," Professor Oak explained.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll be fine. We'll come to an understanding." Ash opened up the Pokéball, the white beam of light striking the table and materializing. A small, yellow, mouse-like Pokémon came out.

" _This again? Doesn't the old fool understand? I don't want a trainer!"_ Pikachu said in annoyance.

Ash crouched until he was face to face with the little mouse Pokémon. "You know, if I couldn't understand every single word that you said, I'm sure that would've sounded really cute."

" _Well, of course, but you're just a human and humans can't….wait, what?"_

Ash grinned at the electric mouse. "Nice to meet you, Pikachu. Starting from today, I'm on a quest to become a Pokémon master! Will you help me?"

Pikachu looked at Ash like he was crazy. " _You? A Pokémon master? You've got to be joking, right?_ "

He got ready to ridicule this newbie trainer some more, but found himself staring into Ash's eyes. Eyes filled with determination. "You won't know till I try, will you? What's the worst that could happen? Give me a chance, will you?"

Pikachu scoffed at the hat-wearing trainer, but decided to go with it. He would just convince this kid to give him back to the Professor, just like he always did.

Ash held up the Pokéball, but felt a wave of annoyance roll over Pikachu when he did. "You don't like being in the Pokéball? Well, whatever. You can sit on my head or shoulder," Ash gestured.

The electric mouse looked at him in surprise, but did so, taking up a perch on Ash's left shoulder. _'This kid is strange…'_ the mouse thought. " _Also…why can he talk to me?"_

Professor Oak watched the byplay with a smile. For the last five years, Ash had constantly been at the lab, studying Pokémon, asking questions, and helping with the Pokémon that Professor Oak held. The young boy's passion for Pokémon was unmatched and he absorbed knowledge like a sponge.

Ash was constantly a great help at the Ranch, able to communicate with the Pokémon and tell the Professor of any needs or problems that they faced. Lucario sometimes worked to train some of the Fighting-Type Pokémon at the Ranch, such as Hitmonlee and Mankey.

Professor Oak snapped back to attention to continue his duty as the Professor seeing off a starting trainer.

"Here is a regional Pokédex, five Pokéballs, and a Pokégear for your journey. The Pokédex will function as an encyclopedia for Pokémon, passport, credit card, taking videos, pictures, and many other things."

Ash smiled and took the three items. He hooked the five Pokéballs onto his trainer's belt, alongside Pikachu's lightning-marked one. He attached the red Pokégear to his wrist.

The Pokégear was a device that originated in Johto and spread over to Kanto. The further off regions had their own equivalents, but they all had a similar function for the most part. The Pokégear served as a map, contact book, phone, and few other miniscule things. As such, the Pokégear started to be given out to a small amount of trainers to aid in their journeys, mostly the trainers that started out at a lab like Professor Oak's.

"Thanks Professor, I appreciate it!" Ash said happily. "I've gotta get going now, Professor Oak. Need to say bye to my mom and then get started on my journey."

"Of course! Have a nice journey, Ash. I'll contact you once I receive notification that you've arrived in Viridian City," he said with a nod.

Professor Oak watched the new trainer depart with a smile, slightly regretful that he was losing his best assistant. With a sigh, he returned back inside.

…..

Delia Ketchum whistled as she cleaned the house, waiting for her dear son to come back from the Lab. She heard the door opening and went out to greet him.

"Welcome back, honey!" she said affectionately.

"Hey mom, I'm back. This is my new partner, Pikachu! He'll be my starter Pokémon for the journey," Ash said, gesturing to the yellow mouse on his shoulder.

"Oh! He's so cute!" Delia squealed, taking Pikachu into a hug. She eventually let go of the mouse, who took a deep breath of air to refill his squashed lungs.

She turned to look at Ash. "It feels like it was just yesterday when you were my little boy, begging to go to Professor Oak's Lab to see some of the Pokémon…and now you're all grown up and ready to go," Delia said, eyes clouded slightly by tears.

"Mom…" Ash hugged his mother gently. The two just stood there for a moment. His mother broke off from the hug with a soft smile, wiping away her tears.

"My, my, what's come over me? I didn't want to send you away like this," Delia joked. "I'm so proud of you, Ash…and I'm sure your father would be to. It's time for your journey to begin." She handed over a backpack, filled with some clothes, supplies, and other assorted things that Ash had prepared. "Make sure you brush your teeth side-to-side and shower constantly. Make sure you're clean for all the young ladies that you come across in your journey, you wouldn't want to chase them off! Always eat like a gentlemen, not like a hungry Snorlax. Treat your Pokémon with care, and don't forget to change your under-"

Ash stopped his mom with another hug and a reassuring smile. "I'll make sure to remember it all and I'll make you proud, mom. I promise, I'll become a Pokémon master!"

Delia smiled brightly. "Go get 'em, honey!"

Ash nodded and walked away with one last wave of goodbye. Delia watched her son walk off for his Pokémon journey, just like his father years ago. She leaked a few more tears, but kept a smile on her face as he faded from view.

…..

" _Your mother is a very affectionate person,"_ Pikachu groaned, trying to work out a creak in his neck.

"I know, and I love her all the more for it."

The duo were well on their way to Viridian City as something crossed his mind. The Pokéball on his necklace burst open, releasing Lucario from within.

" _You forgot to let me out, Ash…"_ the Aura Pokémon stated, a vein popping out on his forehead.

Ash laughed nervously as Lucario redirected his attention to the yellow mouse on his shoulder. "Oh right, this is Pikachu. Pikachu, meet Lucario, my first friend."

Pikachu's ears twitched. " _Friend? Not pet? Toy? Servant? Tool?"_ he asked curiously. He was startled by Ash's reaction.

Pure disgust and hatred marred Ash's otherwise innocent features for all but a moment.

"No. Lucario is my friend. And I hope that you decide to be as well. Any one that treats their Pokémon companions as anything less than a comrade doesn't deserve to be a trainer at all," Ash stated with venom.

Pikachu went silent to ponder his new trainer's words. Lucario noticed the confusion. _'Would it be safe to assume that your past trainers were people that treated you as such?'_ the Aura Pokémon asked telepathically.

Pikachu was startled by the connection, but calmed down quickly. _'Yes…they were. And you're telling me that this kid won't?'_

' _Ash is perhaps the kindest human I have ever met, second only to his mother. He treats me with respect, works alongside me as a partner and friend. I see that you haven't quite accepted him yet…I would urge you to do so. He could be the greatest friend you will ever make.'_ Lucario cut the link there, giving the mouse time to think.

Pikachu turned to see a Pokédex in front of his face and the device's monotone voice began to speak. " _Pikachu, the Mouse Pokémon and the evolution of Pichu. It can generate electric attacks from the electric attacks from the electric pouches located in both of its cheeks. This Pikachu is male and knows the moves Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Quick Attack, and Double Team. It has the ability Static and the hidden ability Lightning Rod, both are active at all times."_

Ash whistled in surprise at the information. The two abilities were a pleasant surprise, Static to aid in any physical confrontations and Lightning Rod to help Pikachu in any electrical power struggles. He seemed to be more of a speed-oriented type anyway, so it fit.

"Wow, you're pretty powerful," Ash commented off-handedly. Pikachu preened under the praise. "There's a slight disadvantage to your move set though. You don't really have anything for Ground and Rock-Types. The first gym leader uses Rock and Ground-Types. That might be a problem."

Pikachu grimaced, knowing his own limits. " _So, what should I do?_ " he asked, testing his trainer for competence.

"I'm going to teach you some new moves to give you a weapon to use against Ground/Rock-Types. Iron Tail and Dig would be good moves to teach you. Rock-Types also tend to be slower in the scale of Pokémon, so we'll train in you in speed, to dodge and run circles around them. You already know Double Team, which should help a lot. You'll be near impossible for them to hit. What do you think, does that sound good?"

Pikachu tilted his head in confusion. " _You're letting me have a choice?_ "

Ash smiled, understanding Pikachu's shock. He plucked the mouse off his shoulder and hugged him. Pikachu was stunned by the sudden movement, as the trainer began to speak. "How can a Pokémon become any stronger if their own will is disregarded in their training? How can a trainer even call themselves one if they don't care for each Pokémon that joins their family? It's all up to you, Pikachu."

' _Family...greatest friend I'll ever meet…'_ Pikachu looked Ash in the eyes. " _Do you really mean that?_ "

Ash looked straight back, sincerity shining through his eyes. "Every word of it. I swear on my life and Aura." His eyes flashed blue, startling the Electric Mouse Pokémon, yet also adding much more credibility to his claim.

"… _Ok, Ash. I'll help you on your journey to become a Pokémon master…and you'll be my first friend. Now, let's get to training!"_ Pikachu said happily.

The last few moments had cemented it. He could just see it in Ash's eyes. If he needed to, he would give his life up for any Pokémon that he cared for. He would follow this trainer through till the very end.

Ash smiled brightly, happy that Pikachu had finally accepted him. He much preferred earning trust than muscling in obedience, like most people would attempt to do. Pikachu's heart warmed at the earnest smile from Ash.

…..

" _Oh Arceus, save me from this demon!"_ Pikachu whined, collapsed on Ash's sleeping bag. " _This isn't training, this is torture!"_

"Hey, don't complain. It's entirely reasonable and productive. Besides, I do the same exercises at two times the pace and repetition, so it's totally doable," Ash said as he mixed some food for his friend.

Pikachu sighed, but Ash was right. He had learned Iron Tail and Flash from his eager trainer and was told that they would talk more about what next after he had a break.

The Mouse Pokémon had learned that Ash was rather unique...

Instead of using the Technical Machines that many trainers bought, with only a single-time usage, Ash himself watched the instruction videos and committed them to memory, so he could teach multiple Pokémon the moves.

Pikachu also found himself worked to the bone in order to train his speed and stamina, though Ash promised that more balanced training would come in later on. _'Oh, the horror…'_ Pikachu thought to himself. A little scent trail floated over to the tired mouse, stopping in front of his nose.

He sniffed and immediately snapped his head up, eyes wide open. He dashed over to Ash, locating the source of the wonderful smell. _"What is that? What's that smell?"_ he said excitedly.

"Homemade Pokémon food. Took a lot of experimenting to get it down right, but Professor Oak had a lot of Pokémon for me to work with. Yours specifically has Shuca Berries in it." Ash set down the plate in front of Pikachu, who immediately dug in.

" _Oh, wow, this tastes so good!"_ Pikachu said in delight, savoring the tangy primary flavor of the food, complemented by an undertone of sweetness that appealed to his taste buds. " _What're Shuca Berries?"_

"Special berries from the Sinnoh Region. They don't grow naturally here in Kanto, but I persuaded my mom to order some and grow them in our garden. The Shuca Berry itself has the effect of weakening damage caused by super effective Ground-Type attacks. I read something on how adding berries like this to food will naturally increase a Pokémon's resistance to their opposing type, so this should be perfect for you."

" _Wow, you sure studied a lot about Pokémon before you even started your journey, huh?"_ Pikachu asked. He was pretty sure that most trainers wouldn't have anywhere near the amount of knowledge that Ash had stored up.

" _You should have seen him. Outside of training with me in the arts of Aura and playing with that girl Serena when she was still here in Kanto, Ash spent almost all of his time researching on Pokémon. Professor Oak even offered him an assistant position if the whole trainer bit didn't work out,"_ Lucario snorted.

Pikachu laughed at that and finished up his meal before laying on his back contentedly. " _Well, I'm ready to talk about training now."_

"Perfect. Before I saw anything else, amazing job out there today, Pikachu. I was worried that the regimen might be too straining, but you worked your way through it," Ash said with a smile. He brought the Mouse Pokémon into his lap, petting his head affectionately.

Pikachu twitched, but couldn't resist the comfortable grooming. " _Thanks. I'm not kidding about my goal to become the strongest Electric-Type in the world!"_ he said with determination.

Ash nodded at his companion and began the overview. "You've outperformed what I expected today. I didn't quite expect you to finish with Flash today, but since you did, you should have no problem learning more diverse moves. At the moment, we can keep on working to help you specialize, but eventually we'll need to balance you out." Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"Tomorrow, we can work on one of the more complex Electric-Type moves I was thinking of and keep working towards Agility. All-in-all, you're doing a great job!" Pikachu smiled at the compliment.

" _What is your plan for the Gym, Ash? You haven't discussed that in detail yet,"_ Lucario asked.

"With Pikachu's training and the Gym's typing in mind, I was thinking hit-and run tactics would be our best bet. They'll be hard pressed to hit Pikachu and we should be able to overwhelm the Gym with his speed. I'd like to get another Pokémon before we get to Pewter Gym though. I heard that the Gym leader goes with two on two battles, so I need a second."

" _You could just use me,"_ Lucario commented.

"I could…but you could also probably destroy every gym in the Kanto Region easily…" Ash deadpanned. "As a trainer, I need to gain entry to the Indigo League legitimately, which means with my own Pokémon and not with you steamrolling everything. If I am going use you, it'll be in the Indigo League or similar situations, nothing less."

Pikachu raised his head curiously. " _How strong are you, Lucario_?"

" _I believe the Professor rated me at around Elite Four level, if you are aware of what that means."_ Pikachu gaped at the Aura Pokémon, who chuckled at the mouse's expression. " _I have years of experience and a variety of moves available to me. I work myself ragged every day. Keep training as Ash directs you, and you'll be as strong one day. Maybe even stronger."_

Pikachu nodded in understanding, swearing that he would do his best. Lucario's explanation raised a point of interest with Ash.

He hadn't used the Pokédex on the Aura Pokémon yet, so he didn't know all of his moves. He snapped his Pokédex open and activated it to scan Lucario.

" _Lucario, the Aura Pokémon, and the evolved form of Riolu. By catching the aura emanating from others, it can read their thoughts and movements. This Lucario is male and knows the moves Force Palm, Extreme Speed, Close Combat, Aura Sphere, Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Bone Rush, Metal Claw, Low Kick, Detect, Protect, Swords Dance, Calm Mind, Feint, Counter, Shadow Ball, and Shadow Claw. This Lucario has the ability Inner Focus, meaning that this Pokémon will never flinch or hesitate to strike."_

Ash took a moment to enjoy his yellow companion's reaction. Pikachu's jaw was flat on the ground in astonishment. Ash himself wasn't entirely surprised at the revelation of Lucario's move set.

Somebody had to be sparring with the Aura Pokémon, after all.

The silence was broken by a screaming in the distance, growing louder by the moment. "Somebody help me!" An orange-haired girl crested the hill riding her bike, pursued by a flock of Spearow and a Fearow.

She was having a rather bad day. She's spent most of the day fishing at the nearby river, only to have no fruitful bites on her lure. In her frustration, she'd kicked a stone laying nearby on the riverbank. She heard a cry of pain before the flock of hostile birds came out to pursue her.

She rode off towards Viridian City in hopes of losing the flock, but they were persistent, keeping up with her even as she biked away.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt! Lucario, Dark Pulse!" she heard shouted. The bolt of electricity and shockwave of darkness flew over her head, slamming into the flock, immediately sending them reeling. The Fearow shrieked indignantly and tried to fly away, only to fall to the ground paralyzed and reeling from the damage. A Pokéball slapped into the large bird of prey, taking it into the capsule. The ball shook a few times before confirming the capture.

"Hey, do you mind picking that up and bringing it over here?" the voice called out.

She complied and located the source of her rescuers, riding over to the trio of figures. "Hello!" she called out.

"Hi, what's your name? I'm Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town," he said, introducing himself with a smile. "These are my friends, Lucario and Pikachu." The Aura Pokémon nodded to the orange-haired girl, Pikachu greeting her, even though she probably only heard a 'Pika!"

She moved closer into the camp, finally getting a good look at the trainer that helped her out. _'Wow, he's pretty cute,'_ she thought idly, blushing slightly. ' _A bit young though. Maybe a few more years…'_ "My name is Misty Waterflower, from Cerulean City. Thank you for helping me."

"No problem at all! Do you want to stay with us for the night? It's getting rather late out and we have food to share. You seem like you could go for a nice meal."

Misty opened her mouth to speak, but her stomach rumbled slightly to interrupt her. She blushed in embarrassment. Ash, Lucario, and Pikachu chuckled in amusement.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer. Thank you Ash!" she said appreciatively. She handed over the Pokéball with Fearow in it and settled down for a meal.

The rest of the night passed rather uneventfully and the quartet soon went to sleep. Lucario retreated into his Pokéball, Ash curled up with Pikachu in his sleeping bag, and Misty unrolled her own.

' _So, how are we going to do this…?'_ Ash thought before his consciousness faded off to sleep.

…..


	3. Chapter 3

Ash woke with a silent yawn, eyes opening to see the sun rising and showing that it was early in the morning. He admired the beautiful sight, gently shifting Pikachu onto the sleeping bag.

" _Good morning, Ash."_

"Morning Lucario," Ash said without flinching. He'd gotten used to Lucario's habit of lurking about.

The Aura Pokémon jumped off of the tree branch he had been sitting on, landing neatly. " _The girl, how will you handle her?"_ Lucario asked, gesturing at Misty.

"Not really sure, honestly. It would be nice to have a human to talk to as we travel along, but then I wouldn't be able to talk to you guys all the time if I wanted to keep my secret," Ash responded, troubled by the situation.

" _Then don't."_ Ash looked at him curiously. _"If you are going to make real friends, it would be counter-productive to hold any secrets back, namely your Aura abilities. They need not know about your Chosen status, but the rest they should be privy to."_

The black-haired trainer sighed. "What if I end up as a non-stop translator then? I'm sure any trainer would love the chance to be able to converse with their Pokémon. And my Aura abilities, I'm not sure how normal people would react to traveling with a Human Pokémon…"

" _Make it clear then. If they will truly become a friend, they will respect your wishes to use your ability as you wish. Serena took the revelation of your abilities well-enough, did she not?"_

"I guess so," Ash conceded. "Guess I'll make breakfast and wait for them to wake up."

Lucario nodded and went off to hunt for his own food. He preferred hunting for his own food to being provided to by Ash, though he appreciated the sentiment.

Ash whipped out a pan and ingredients from his backpack of seemingly endless capacity. He whipped up a batter for pancakes and beat some eggs for himself and Misty. Taking out a few berries, Ash chopped up some Chesto, Shuca, and Oran Berries to add to Pikachu's food. He prepared a different batch for Fearow.

He really enjoyed perusing the effects of berries in meals, the more common being the Chesto to help wake up Pokémon from their morning slow-down and Oran for energy.

Ash set-up a little array for him to cook pancakes in and started to hum. Soon, Pikachu and Misty stirred from their slumber to the sound of crackling and smell of food.

"Good morning Ash!" Misty said brightly. Pikachu drowsily bounced over to Ash, taking his usual place on his trainer's shoulder.

"Morning Misty, Pikachu," Ash replied, flipping a pancake over. "Breakfast will be done in a few minutes."

Misty nodded and relaxed, stretching herself out. Her eyes locked onto the friendly, but mysterious boy, watching him silently.

" _You have a healthy amount of interest in my trainer,"_ a voice stated from behind her, startling the girl.

Misty turned to see Lucario, amusement in his eyes. "D-Did you just talk?" she asked apprehensively.

Lucario bit down a sarcastic retort, considering that she was just a ten-year old girl, and replied evenly. " _Yes, it's something that my powers over Aura allow me to do. I believe Ash has finished cooking breakfast, don't let me delay you from your meal."_

Misty nodded, still rather startled from the information. _'What a way to start a conversation,'_ Ash thought to himself with a smirk.

Lucario leaned against a nearby tree as the trio ate. Ash released the Fearow he caught, but it stayed away from the quartet for the moment. He would take care of that later. Ash decided to explain his ability to speak to Pokémon while the subject was breached, leaving his ability to utilize the Aura to simulate moves for some other day.

Needless to say, Misty was pretty astounded. Shock soon turned to amazement. It was definitely a cool ability, but she realized that Ash didn't want her to treat him any differently. She opted to talk about some normal stuff. "So, where are you heading to Ash?"

"We're going to stop off in Viridian City to get Pikachu a little check-up and register for the Indigo League. Then we're heading through Viridian Forest and onto Pewter City for our first gym badge."

"Wait, your first gym badge? How long have you been on your journey?"

"This is my second day."

Misty gasped. "What, really? How did you catch the Fearow so easily? It looked so strong!"

Ash pointed to Lucario and Pikachu. "My friends are really strong, that's all I can say. Pikachu's gone through some pretty tough training already, haven't you buddy?"

" _Torture, not training…"_ the mouse responded.

"Right…anyway, enough about us. Where are you going to do?"

"Well, I'm not really sure…I set out on my journey to work on becoming the best Water Pokémon trainer, but I don't really know what I should be doing…"

"Why don't you travel with us, Misty? If you don't have anything else you want to do, it'd be good for you to rack up experience while traveling," Ash offered.

Misty looked surprised. "Really, you'd let me come with you? Wouldn't I just be slowing you down?"

Ash shook his head with a smile. "Of course not! The more, the merrier, right? I'd have to be insane to not want to travel with a cute girl, anyway."

" _Oh Arceus, I think I'm going to be sick,"_ Pikachu groaned melodramatically. Ash stuck his tongue out at his little, yellow companion. Red tinged Misty's features, flushing at the compliment. Her heart drummed slightly.

She made up her mind easily. "I'd love to come along, Ash. Thank you," she said sincerely.

"Glad to have you on-board, Misty. We should set out for Viridian City now. I'd like to get to Pewter within the next four or five days," Ash said, snapping back to business.

Misty got on her bike, while Ash, Pikachu, and Lucario ran. There was always time for training, after all.

…..

 **A/N: In case anybody thinks that Ash/Naruto's behavior is strange. Some people are probably thinking something along the lines of "Naruto be perving on younger people." Well, Naruto himself was technically around 13, which isn't much older. Also, during his transfer, I somewhat stated it, but it might've been misunderstood. Basically, Naruto is Naruto, Ash is Ash. It's been made that while he can access the memories and experience of his past life, Ash is his own person, own personality, and as such, actually a ten year old, but more mature, as per side effects of old life.**

" _Hello~! This is the Ketchum Residence."_

"Hey mom!"

Ash heard a squeal and some shuffling on the side of the call before his mother showed up on the video, a towel wrapped around her neck. " _Hi, dear! Where are you right now?_ "

"I'm in the Pokémon Center in Viridian City."

" _Oh, wow, you're already there? Your father took four days to get there! He'd be so proud."_

"Yea, it didn't take us long to get here. Pikachu got in a lot of training and we even made a new friend on the way!"

Misty came into view, brought over by Ash. "Hello Mrs. Ketchum, my name is Misty Waterflower. Nice to meet you!"

" _Oh, that's so sweet, Ash. I always knew you'd be a ladies man when you started your journey. Don't forget, since you're a trainer, you're basically an adult now, so be responsible!"_

"Mom! Stop it, that's embarrassing," Ash complained, blush on his face.

" _Hehe, I was just kidding with you, sweetheart. Well, I'll be going now! I have something I need to do. Love you, son!"_

"Love you too, mom."

The call ended and Ash sighed, turning to Misty. "Sorry about that, my mom can be kind of…overbearing sometimes."

Misty waved it off, another light blush on her face. "Oh, don't worry, I don't mind at all. It's sweet how much she cares for you."

Ash nodded in agreement and smiled brightly. "Yea, she's the best! She's so supportive of my dream too!"

Misty smiled inwardly. Ash was really mature for a 'ten-year old' boy. Most other guys would've been embarrassed and annoyed at their mothers for stuff like that, not appreciative in the least. Ash was different though.

The orange-haired girl looked around the Pokémon Center as they waited for Nurse Joy to finish checking over Pikachu and Fearow. Her eyes stopped on a quad-colored tablet on the wall.

"Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos, and Arcanine."

Misty looked back to Ash, who was watching her. "Huh?"

"Those are the four Pokémon on that tablet. The Kanto Legendary Bird Trio and the 'Legendary' Pokémon, Arcanine, protector of the law," Ash commented, walking next to the girl. "Arcanine feels kind of out-of-place though. I feel like it should be Lugia instead."

The duo stood patiently in wait for a few more moment before an obnoxious ringtone went off.

"Ring, ring, ring! Phone call! Phone call!"

Ash quickly ran over to the computer that Nurse Joy normally manned, accepting to call to shut off the ring tone. "Hello, who is this?"

" _Here, over here!"_ a familiar voice said. Misty and Ash heard a click and watched as the Arcanine tablet piece slid away to reveal a video screen. _"Ash, it's Professor Oak! Don't you recognize me?"_

Ash sweat dropped. "You're facing the wrong way, Professor."

" _Oh, whoops! Sorry, wrong camera,_ " he said in embarrassment. He tapped a few keys and swapped the camera to his face. He cleared his throat. " _Anyway, I just spoke with your mother and she told me that you are already at the Pokémon Center in Viridian City! Is that correct?"_

"Well, you called the Pokémon Center and I picked up, didn't I?" Ash asked with a raised eyebrow.

" _Oh, right, of course!"_

"Is he senile?" Misty whispered.

" _The other trainers made it to Viridian City without many issues as well, but I was surprised that you made it so quickly. I assume you worked out things with Pikachu, right?"_

"Yea, we're best friends and partners now! Everything's perfect."

" _Good, good, that's good. One other thing. Gary said that you wouldn't have a single new Pokémon by the time you reached Viridian City and I bet him a million Pokédollars that he'd be wrong!"_

"Looks like Gary owes you then, Professor. I caught a Fearow on my way here," Ash stated. "You sure you guys should be wasting money on stuff like this?"

" _Ohoho, don't worry about it. I do feel kind of bad for taking advantage of you like that, so I'll transfer some of the money over to you!"_ A bell rang in the background, distracting the Professor. " _Oh, it looks like my pizza is here. It was nice talking to you, Ash. Good luck!"_ he said before hanging up.

Ash and Misty both sweat dropped at the old Professor's antics. He just shrugged, accepting the extra funds for his journey.

Nurse Joy came out with Pikachu and Ash's Pokéball. "Your Pikachu and Fearow are perfectly healthy now! You have also been registered for the Indigo League, so you're all set to go!"

"Thank you, Nurse Joy!" Ash held out his arm, which Pikachu used to climb back over to his shoulder.

Before anything else could happen, a loud announcement rang out in the city from Officer Jenny. The glass skylight of the Pokémon Center shattered, two Pokéballs falling through.

Both opened, releasing two purple Pokémon. _'Ekans and Koffing…'_ The gaseous Pokémon flew across the room, releasing a smokescreen. Two figures jumped down into the midst.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all people with our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

A Meowth jumped down to join the strangely dressed duo. "Meowth, that's right!"

Ash finally registered the giant red R that they each had on their clothes. "Team Rocket, that one criminal group that's notorious for snatching Pokémon?"

"Well, well, it looks like the boy's done his research," James mocked.

"It doesn't change anything though. Now, hand over all of the Pokémon you have here in the center and we might leave without destroying _too_ much," Jessie said with a cruel smirk.

Ash raised an eyebrow at the criminal trio. They'd regret underestimating him. Ash wasted no time.

"Lucario, Pikachu, time to battle!" Ash shouted, tapping the Pokéball on his necklace. The beam of white light landed in front of Ash, Pikachu taking a position adjacent to the materialized Aura Pokémon. "Lucario, Bone Rush on Ekans, Pikachu, Quick Attack with Iron Tail on the Koffing."

The duo nodded, quickly moving to strike. Lucario materialized a bone and struck Ekans a single time, knocking it harshly back into the Team Rocket trainers. Pikachu sped up quickly, slamming his glowing tail into the gaseous Pokémon, knocking it into the two trainers as well.

This all happened in a second. Meowth snapped out of his shock, claws glowing as he tried to use Fury Swipes. "Pikachu, Double Team to evade, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave, and Flash to disable them."

The electric mouse easily dodged the cat's attack, three more copies appearing and confusing him. All four images dashed towards Meowth, the real Pikachu slamming into his side and propelling him towards the Team Rocket group.

He released a paralyzing wave of electricity into the group, inhibiting their movement and blinded them with Flash, before returning to Ash's side.

The Team Rocket pile struggled to move, but flinched from the paralysis. Moments later, Officer Jenny arrived to take in trio of thugs. Initially, Officer Jenny started off with a rant about how he should have left the dangerous work to adults, but then congratulated and thanked him for his quick actions, preventing any damage to the Pokémon Center.

"We'll get you for this, brat!" Team Rocket shouted simultaneously as they were dragged off.

Ash watched the doors to the Pokémon Center close and turned around. "For some reason, I get the feeling that we'll see them again."

With nothing else to do in Viridian City, the group left for the Viridian Forest.

…..

 _Hall of Origin…_

The Hall of Origin. Existing in a dimension between time and space, the Hall was an object of legends and myths long passed down by the humans. As the name indicated, all of life originated from this single place.

The home of the Legendary Pokémon, Arceus. The one known as the God of All Pokémon, the Creator of Life.

Unlike its normal state, the Hall was filled with occupants today, at the first Council of Legends in many years.

The Kanto Bird Trio: Zapdos, Avatar of Lightning, Articuno, Avatar of Ice, and Moltres, Avatar of Fire.

The Johto Beast Trio: Raikou, Beast of Lightning, Entei, Beast of Fire, and Suicune Beast of Ice.

The Guardians of the Seas and Skies: Lugia and Ho-Oh.

The New Species Legendary Pokémon, said to contain the DNA of all Pokémon in existence: Mew.

The Traveler of Time and Embodiment of the Forest: Celebi.

The Hoenn Legendary Golems: Regice, Regirock, and Registeel.

Their Master and the Colossal Pokémon, normally slumbering within Sinnoh: Regigigas.

The Hoenn Eon Duo: Latios and Latias.

The Hoenn Weather Trio: Kyogre, the Empress of the Ocean, Groudon, the Emperor of Land, and Rayquaza, the Lord of the Atmosphere.

The Hoenn Wish Pokémon, who normally only every one thousand years: Jirachi.

The Pokémon from Outer Space: Deoxys.

The Sea Guardians: Manaphy and Phione.

The Sinnoh Lake Guardians: Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit.

The Sinnoh Creation Trio: Dialga, Lord of Time, Palkia, Lady of Time, and Giratina, Empress of Antimatter.

The Sinnoh Lunar Duo: Cresselia, Princess of Dreams, and Darkrai, Prince of Nightmares.

The Volcanic Pokémon, born of the planet's burning core: Heatran.

The Gratitude Pokémon and Purifier of Lands: Shaymin.

The Unova Embodiment of Victory: Victini.

The Unova Swords of Justice: Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion, along with their recent member Keldeo.

The Unova Forces of Nature: Tornadus, Landorus, and Thundurus.

The Unova Tao Trio: Zekrom, Aspect of Yin, Reshiram, Aspect of Yang, and Kyurem, the Dragon of Absence.

The Legendary of Song and Dance: Meloetta.

The Ancient Insect Pokémon: Genesect.

The Kalos Mortality Duo: Xerneas, the Empress of Life, and Yveltal, the Emperor of Destruction.

Each of the Legendaries were present in the Hall of Origin, summoned by their mother, Arceus. The children and siblings created by Arceus many years past were with their respective kind.

A few years ago, Arceus had seen it fit to increase the number of some of the Legendaries, though the reason was unknown to them.

At the moment, many of them were arguing. " **Humans are despicable creatures, searching to misuse our powers and catch us for their personal use! How can you not see that?** "Groudon roared.

" **And how are you blind to the fact that not all humans are all the same way? Even we Pokémon differ in behavior, some aggressive for no reason at all!** " Kyogre growled back.

" **Ah, but you have not been personally exploited yet, Kyogre. You don't know how it feels to be under the cruel hands of humans,"** Genesect clicked.

" **One man in particular has been pursuing my son endlessly, hoping to add him to his collection of Legendaries…"** Darkrai stated monotonically.

" **I know the feeling, Darkrai, but even you must agree that there are humans that can be trustworthy. Does the girl Alice not hold a place in your heart?"** Latios stated. One of his own brothers was being pursued by the same man. However, Latios and his sister, who was timidly floating behind him, both trusted greatly in Lorenzo and Bianca.

" **Sir Aaron, as well. He gave his life selflessly for my survival and to end the Great War,** " Mew added in.

" **The same Great War that was started by greedy humans in the first place!** " Entei roared back.

" **The same greed that has led so many organizations to attempt to unseal and use us as tools,** " Reshiram stated.

The bickering continued between the larger Legendaries, but Celebi, Meloetta, Shaymin, Manaphy, Phione, Mew, Keldeo, and Jirachi simply sat back. " **Humans aren't really that bad, are they?** " Keldeo asked curiously.

" **Not all of them, no. However, the truly great ones are few in the world. Most of them aren't particularly bad, but rather simple-minded,** " Celebi stated objectively.

" **Well…we'll have some real fun soon!"** Mew said playfully. The others turned to look at her, but then Arceus floated down from above, aura of power permeating the room.

The room went silent as all heads turned to their leader. " **Thank you all for gathering at such short notice,"** Arceus stated, settling down at the head of the room.

" **Why have you gathered us here, mother? You have not called a Council meeting in over a millennia,** " Zekrom asked respectfully.

" **Change is coming to our world... Darkrai, tell me. What do you think of humans?** "

The Pitch-Black Pokémon considered the question carefully for a minute before answering. " **Humans are variable, the largest force of change in the world. It was they who started the Great Wars in the past…but also they who turned the world to peace.**

 **Humans can be vile, hate-filled, greedy, and untrustworthy…but they can also be kind, caring, trustworthy, and a wonderful species.**

 **Some of the others argue that our fellow Pokémon are forced by trainers to fight against their will and degrade themselves. I find that to be untrue. While there are some vile humans that take Pokémon against their will or train them for misdeeds, there are also trainers that treat their Pokémon as comrades and friends. Pokémon themselves, in some cases, want to go with trainers to strengthen themselves outside of what they can in their natural environment.**

 **I am indifferent to humans."**

Some of the Legendaries frowned at Darkrai's defense of humans, but many smiled in agreement. Arceus nodded in acceptance. " **That is a very thorough and well-thought out answer. Now, then, the change I speak of will occur in the near future. Soon, organizations and individuals alike will seek out the Legendaries to further their own goals, whether of greed or power.** " Many of the Legendaries roared in anger at this. **"SILENCE!"** The Hall settled down once again. " **They will seek you out and capture you with technology, attempting to bend you to their will. However, you will not face these endeavors alone.** "

" **Does that mean you will aid us, Lady Arceus?** " Groudon asked in confusion.

The giant quadruped Legendary shook her head. " **No, it will not be, nor any of your fellow Pokémon.** " Eyes widened in understanding. **"A human will be the focal point and our savior."**

Silence fell over the Hall, disbelieving expressions on every Legendary. Except Mew and Arceus. " **What powers could a human hold to protect us against that which we cannot defend ourselves from?** " Dialga asked skeptically. The Legendaries waited anxiously for her response.

" **He is no ordinary human. He is my Chosen. The one who will become a champion of Pokémon and human alike. And do not be so conceited. Regardless of how each of you view humans, you must recognize that they are innovative and developing rapidly. You will need him.** "

The words sent shockwaves through the bodies of each Legendary. A Chosen of Arceus…what would this human be like? Similar questions ran through the minds of the silent and still Council.

" **Who is this Chosen, mother? What is he like?** " Celebi asked curiously.

" **He is pure of heart, with noblest of intentions.**

 **He is strong, with the potential to become an Aura Guardian beyond the power of Sir Aaron.**

 **His skills as a Pokémon Trainer will flourish as he brings his companions and friends to victory, going so far as to train alongside them.**

 **Pokémon will flock to him, those of great potential, potential to become the paragon of their species. They will seek his guidance and receive his friendship, something that they will never regret.**

 **He will meet many women through his travels, with a heart large enough to hold them all equally. Eventually, they will mature and determine what is more important to them; having a single partner or sharing an invaluable companion.**

 **Most importantly, he will bring about great change to you all. As he meets you, you will form your own opinions of him.**

 **He has my blessings and will become a forerunner of the future, a light for all to follow. He will change humans for the better.** "

The Legendaries remained silent, pondering the words of their creator. Eventually, another question arose, that had been lingering at the back of their minds. " **What of us, Lady Arceus? What role do we play in his life as a whole?** " Lugia asked.

" **Aside from interacting with him as he works to fight the forces of darkness that encroach upon our world, some of us may become his companions,** " Arceus answered easily.

One by one, the Legendaries registered her words. " **I will NOT become some human's POKÉMON, to be called out upon a whim and forced to battle!** " Groudon roared in defiance.

Suddenly, an immense pressure forced itself onto him and he shook in absolute terror. Arceus gazed at him coldly. " **And none of you shall be forced to do so. Make your judgments as he meets you. If you feel inclined to join him, then feel free to do so.** "

Arceus turned her gaze to Lugia, releasing Groudon from the horrifying experience of being on the creator Pokémon's bad side.

" **For example, if you do feel so inclined to join my Chosen on his journey, I shall create a replacement to take up your duty, given that you have one at the time.** " Arceus stated. " **The meeting is concluded and you may all take leave, if you wish to.** **Lugia, I would like to speak to you briefly.**

Many of the Legendaries retreated to their bodies in the physical world, taking the new revelation into consideration. The silver Legendary moved off to speak to her creator.

…..


	4. Chapter 4

Misty shivered in fear as she proceeded, step by step. They could be coming from anywhere, so she was extremely wary. The shadows shifted, raking on her already fraught nerves.

This was a dangerous situation, one that she may never recover from if the situation went bad. She considered writing a will for Ash to help her carry out, in the event that she didn't make it.

"Misty, are you ok?" Ash asked in concern. She was awfully tense and he couldn't tell why.

"Y-yeah, I'm perfectly fine! Don't worry about me!" she said with a false smile.

A branch snapped behind the orange-haired girl and she turned her head slowly. A small yellow worm with a red antenna on its head looked at her with an eye-smiles, both eyes closed in an upwards U-shape.

" _Hi there!"_ the Caterpie said amiably. The little yellow worm made an effort to come across as friendly, on her first day of actively trying to find a trainer.

She had a dream! A dream to leave Viridian Forest and become a Butterfree with a Trainer! She'd seen the majestic butterfly Pokémon flying past occasionally, watching them enviously.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Misty shrieked, quickly running over to Ash and hiding behind him.

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that explains it. You don't like Bug-Types, do you?" Misty shook her head vigorously. Ash gave her a disapproving look. "You shouldn't react like that, Misty. I can understand that you have a dislike for Bug-Types, but it's inconsiderate to Caterpie's feelings. If you want an example, just imagine if some stranger thought one of your Water Pokémon was freaky and disgusting."

Misty put her head down in shame, never having thought about it like that in the past. Ash gave her some time to think about his words, opting to go to the Caterpie instead.

Caterpie was moping, a mini-storm cloud above her head and dripping tiny rain onto her head. " _Well, that didn't go very well…boo,"_ she said sadly. She looked back up and found brown eyes observing her.

She jumped back slightly in shock. "Hi, my name's Ash! You don't need to feel so sad, Caterpie, Misty didn't mean anything by her reaction! She just generally doesn't like Bug-Types, it's nothing against you. I think you're really cute, personally!" Ash said with a smile. "You know, you're pretty special too! You're a beautiful golden yellow, instead of the natural green, which means you're a Shiny Pokémon!"

Caterpie wiggled shyly. " _Oh, he's so nice, trying to cheer me up! I'd thank him if he could understand me… I wonder if he'd be my trainer?"_ she thought out loud.

Ash smiled brightly. "I'd love to be your trainer!"

Caterpie wiggled in delight. " _Oh, really! Wow, thank you so much!"_ she said joyfully. After a few seconds, she realized something. " _Wait, you can understand me?! I thought humans didn't understand Pokéspeech!"_

"Oh, normal humans don't. I have a special power that lets me understand Pokémon though. So, what do you say, do you want to join my team?" Ash asked happily.

" _I'd love to!"_ Caterpie said enthusiastically, moving closer to Ash before suddenly pausing.

Ash tilted his head. "Is something wrong?"

The little yellow worm hopped twice. " _We should make this real! I want you to battle me and catch me, just like a regular battle!_ "

Ash shrugged. "Alright then, whatever you want. Pikachu, be gentle."

The electric mouse nodded. Caterpie quickly shot string out, surprising Ash and Pikachu. It launched faster than they had expected.

"Pikachu, spin and dodge." The electric mouse jumped and twirled in mid-air, avoiding the line of string carefully. "Double Team and then Thundershock." Copies of Pikachu appeared and surrounded, confusing the little yellow worm. Pikachu quickly zapped her with a toned-down Thundershock, disabling Caterpie.

Ash rolled over Pokéball, opting not to bonk the precious little worm on the head. She disappeared into the ball and was captured without a struggle. He quickly let out his new companion, who affectionately crawled onto Ash.

" _Thank you for catching me Ash!"_

Ash smiled, holding her in his arms. He rubbed her head lovingly and she cooed in delight. Pikachu climbed back up to Ash's shoulder. Misty looked nervously at the little worm happily cradled in Ash's arms.

She walked tentatively over to the Caterpie. "I-I-I'm sorry for r-r-reacting that way to you earlier," she stammered apologetically.

Misty heard the little worm chitter happily in response. "She says that she doesn't mind and can understand your reaction. Caterpie forgives you and would like to be friends with you," Ash translated.

Misty nodded with a hesitant smile, willing to try, but still affected by her dislike of Bug-Types as a whole.

Eventually, the group stopped to rest in a small clearing. Ash took a quick scan of Caterpie, nodding at the expected moves of Tackle and String Shot. The evolutionary line as a whole weren't versatile in the least until they reached Butterfree, which is when everything opened up.

"So, for now, we should just focus on training your base stats!" Ash said happily.

Caterpie tilted her head in confusion, not quite understanding what was going on. She felt a hand on her 'shoulder' and turned to see Pikachu, shaking his head with a pitying expression.

" _Good luck. You're going to need it,"_ Pikachu said grimly.

" _What do you mean by that?"_ Caterpie asked innocently. Suddenly, she shivered and a foreboding feeling filled her body. Ash smiled at her, but Caterpie sensed something dangerous behind that smile.

"Let's get started. Pikachu, you too." Pikachu screamed and tried to run away, but a rope latched onto his foot and dragged him backwards. "Oh, come on, Pikachu, it's not that bad!"

Misty watched with amusement and settled down to see how Ash trained.

…..

Pikachu lay on the ground on his back, limbs sprawled and body limp. He panted heavily, sweating buckets onto the floor. " _You. Are. Evil."_

"Isn't that a little too harsh on them, Ash?" Misty asked, pitying the two Pokémon.

"Oh, they'll be fine! Isn't that right, Caterpie?"

The little yellow worm was curled up in Ash's lap, taking a much needed rest. " _I'll be fine! I'll train to be the best Butterfree in the world!_ " she said with determination.

"That's the spirit!" Ash cheered, petting the little worm lovingly.

" _That's no fair…you went easy on her…"_ Pikachu groaned from his spot on the ground.

"I train you guys to your utmost limits. Any more would've hurt Caterpie, since she's rather young and untrained. You, on the other hand, can handle more, so I think it was appropriate," Ash retorted.

Misty took a look around at the messed up landscape. String covered multiple trees as a result of Ash training Caterpie in becoming more proficient with the technique. She could now spew more string at a faster rate and with more force. The rest of Caterpie's training mostly involved conditioning.

Pikachu's training was more destructive, needless to say. Circular burn marks scarred the first few large rocks near the camp. The rest each now had large spherical indentations ingrained into them. Ash put Pikachu's electric proficiency to the test in teaching him a move that was rather recently created in the Unova Region.

Electro Ball. The projectile electric attack that concentrate electricity into a ball of whirring energy, damaging the opponent based on how much faster Pikachu was than its opponent.

As the attack took some charge up time, particularly quick Pokémon could attempt to interfere with its windup, decreasing the power if released at all. For a Pokémon as quick and electrically-talented as Pikachu, he would be hard matched to find an opponent that could stop him. It was a perfect fit.

The electric mouse was rather satisfied to have learned the technique, even if it was followed by Ash's demonic physical training.

" _Hey Ash, when are you planning on trying to talk to Fearow?"_ Pikachu asked randomly, the topic wandering into his mind.

Ash stood up, gently placing Caterpie on his head. "I was actually going to do it right now, thank you for reminding me." He unclipped the Pokéball from his belt, but snapped his fingers as he realized something. "Lucario, up and battle ready."

Ash took Caterpie off his head and back into one of his arms. The Aura Pokémon jumped off the tree branch he was sitting on, understanding what Ash wanted.

He tapped the button on the Pokéball and released Fearow from the Pokéball. The large bird of prey let out a cry and flew up, hovering in the air. It eyed the Caterpie in Ash's arms.

" _The human has finally released me from the ball…that Caterpie looks rather tasty..."_ the Fearow said, revealing it to be a female to Ash.

Most Pokémon researchers and trainers had methods of differentiating gender, though some tended to be rather obscure details on the Pokémon's physiology.

Conveniently enough, Ash's Aura Speech technique translated Pokéspeech into a voice of the matching gender, sound basing itself on different factors of the Pokémon itself.

"Caterpie isn't food for you, Fearow. She's the new member of our team."

Fearow was interested that a trainer could understand their language, but ignored it.

" _Hmph…a weak Pokémon for a weak trainer. Pitifully fitting. Don't expect me to listen to you,"_ she said haughtily.

Caterpie looked down sadly. Ash narrowed his eyes, annoyed that Fearow hurt the little worm's feelings. _'Well, I'll just knock out three things at once then.'_ "Fearow, how about this. If you don't acknowledge me capturing you while you were chasing Misty, then let's make a deal. I will battle you with Caterpie. If you win, then I'll release."

" _And if you win, you'll keep me against my will?"_ she mocked.

Ash shook his head. "If I win, I'll let you go if you want me to. I'd like for you to consider traveling with me though _."_

"Ash, are you sure about this? That's a bad type match-up for you," Misty worried.

"I believe in Caterpie. We have a chance."

Fearow stared at the trainer with hidden surprise. She had expected a less mature response to her taunting. It made no difference. She would beat this trainer and his bug down.

" _A-are you sure about this, Ash? I don't think if I can do this…I only know two moves…and she's a Flying-Type…"_ Caterpie whimpered.

Ash brought her up face-to-face and hugged her reassuringly, confidence shining in his eyes. "Caterpie, it doesn't matter how many moves you have or what type you are…anybody can win a battle if they train hard and use their smarts. At the very least, just give it your best!"

Caterpie nodded, invigorated by Ash's words. She turned around to face the bird of pretty, fire in her eyes.

Fearow's eyes glowed eerily red, glaring to intimidate Caterpie.

"Caterpie, String Shot, Web Style, now!" Ash's voice snapped the worm out of her fear. She immediately started to shoot string, twisting and shaking her head rapidly. The line of string quickly grew to an entire web, startling Fearow.

The bird of prey quickly dove to the ground, narrowly dodging the high speed web. She recovered from the shock and attacked. Rising back up, Fearow dove straight towards Caterpie, tucking in her wings and spinning violently, beck aimed to stab into the worm. Drill Run.

"Caterpie, quick, use String Shot on the branch and pull yourself away." The Drill Run slammed into the ground. Caterpie propelled herself onto the branch by swinging with the swing. "Great job, now String Shot both wings and pull yourself in while she's recovering."

Fearow tried to get up turn around quickly, but her risky move slowed her down. Two large strings attached to her wings, reducing her mobility even further. "Tackle with momentum, now!"

Caterpie jumped off her branch and reeled herself in. She added a twist, like Ash showed her, and spin-slammed her body into Fearow, making the bird of prey call out in pain. She flapped her wings angrily, tossing off Caterpie and turning to strike.

Suddenly, the worm's eyes snapped out-of-focus as she spewed silk directly upwards. It quickly fell back down, wrapping around her and enveloping her in a bright white light. Fearow recoiled backwards in annoyance.

Ash smiled as the light subsided. A red Metapod faced Fearow now, a happy look in its eyes. " _Yay, I evolved! Just one more time and I can be a Butterfree."_

"Awesome, but let's not lose focus now. Harden!" Metapod glowed red, stiffening herself to raise her defense.

Fearow, mind still clouded with annoyance, furiously stabbed her beak repeatedly, to little effect. A vein popped up on her head. She flew away slightly before rushing back, white energy coating her body. Fearow suddenly vanished from sight.

"Oh, Aerial Ace." Ash's eyes flickered, tracking the bird of prey's motions easily. "String Shot and pull yourself to the right, now."

Metapod obeyed immediately, starting to skid across the ground. Fearow reappeared, striking a glancing blow on the red Cocoon Pokémon. Metapod got slapped into the tree, but recovered quickly.

" _She's putting up quite the fight. Ash is truly a great trainer to utilize Caterpie/Metapod's capabilities to such an extent,"_ Lucario commented. Pikachu nodded in agreement.

" _Ok, that's enough! No more messing around!"_ Fearow shrieked.

She wound up for an attack again, body once again coated with white light. Fearow herself also began to spin fiercely, beak glowing with energy. _"I'm not losing here!"_ Fearow shrieked.

The bird of prey drove herself past her current limits, not allowing Ash and Metapod any time to react. She charged, determination to win evident in her features, collision imminent with the Cocoon Pokémon.

Metapod closed her eyes to brace herself for the hit, but smiled. She'd put up a good fight with Ash.

' _You fought well, but you lose…'_ Fearow thought to herself.

If she was being honest with herself, she had fun fighting with the little worm and the trainer. Shepherding the local Spearows and harassing starting trainers was no fun.

Fearow registered Metapod's final expression, before her attack landed. Pride and joy. Exhilaration at her own performance. _'Could...I be like that?'_

Metapod waited for the strike to come. _'Will it hurt a lot? I'll be fine though…daddy wouldn't let me get hurt too much! Daddy…daddy?'_ She felt a warm feeling inside. _'Yea, my daddy. He takes care of me, he loves me…he'll fulfill my dream with me!'_

Metapod waited, unable to dodge in time. Thoughts flew quickly through her mind. _'Any second now…'_ The whirring came closer. _'Pretty soon.'_ Even closer. _'Ok, better brace myself!'_

Metapod waited, but nothing came. She peeked through her eyes. Fearow hovered in front of her, flapping her wings slowly. " _For one who was recently a Caterpie, you're strong. How?"_

Metapod was startled by the sudden change in tempo, but the answer was simple. She didn't take even a second to register an answer.

" _Ash. It's all thanks to Ash. He trained me to become faster, stronger, taught me how to use my given abilities to their fullest potential, and led me through the battle. Without him, I wouldn't have lasted nearly as long,"_ she answered seriously.

" _I see…_ " Fearow turned to face Ash.

Before she could say anything, a giant net burst out from the trees, snatching up both Metapod and Fearow. Lucario and Ash both switched on their Aura Sight immediately. The Aura Pokémon quickly grabbed Pikachu and jumped away, avoiding an imminent sneak attack.

Ekans burst out of the ground, following by Koffing. They stalled Pikachu and Lucario, leaving Fearow and Metapod to be dragged away.

Misty released her Staryu to help rescue the two captured Pokémon. She soon found the gesture to be unnecessary.

Ash jumped into action, fury adorning his face. He did not take kindly to people kidnapping his friends. He rushed forward, body enveloped in a layer of white energy, while his arms were completely enveloped in light.

Ash vanished from sight for a moment before reappearing, slicing through the net with his arms. He grabbed the cut net and the white aura began to steam off of him.

Misty and Fearow gaped at the sight. Metapod's eyes were shining with admiration. _"Wow, daddy's so strong!"_

He heaved and reeled in the net and everything attached, bringing a medium-sized robot into view and slamming it into the ground. Ash heard the groans of Jessie, James, and Meowth as they tumbled around inside of their mecha.

"Well, he's not going to give us time to do our intro, is he?" Jessie stated obviously.

"On the contrary Jessie, he looks rather angry with us," James replied.

"Will you two mugs stop yappin' and get to nabbin' the Pokémon!?" Meowth shouted, annoyed at the duo.

They pressed a few buttons, sending out two robotic arms to snatch the two injured and exhausted Pokémon. Fearow had put in a lot of energy to stop her full-on charge. The hand reached in to grip Fearow, giving in to her fate.

Suddenly, she felt herself pushed out of way. She looked back to see Ash getting grabbed by the mechanical claw. He shot a large blue ball of energy at the claw reaching for Metapod, knocking it away and preventing them from grabbing the red Cocoon Pokémon.

' _Why?!'_ Fearow thought in shock.

"Why you little brat!" Jessie shrieked.

"We'll show you not to mess with Team Rocket!" James pressed another button, sending an electric current through the mechanical arm.

Ash grunted in pain, but withheld easily enough. Pikachu's Thunderbolts hurt more than this. That wasn't to say the spectators weren't worried though.

" _Daddy!"_ Metapod shrieked. _"Stop hurting him!"_

A bright light engulfed her again and her cocoon shattered. A Butterfree with green eyes and pink limbs burst out from the remnants of her last form, flapping her new wings fiercely.

" _Let him go!"_ she shouted, eyes glowing an eerie green. The air twisted and warped around the Team Rocket trio, giving them massive headaches. In their confusion and pain, they accidentally hit another button.

The claw released Ash and he turned to Butterfree, who flew into his arms. " _Daddy, you're ok!"_ she chirped happily.

"You're calling me daddy now? Well, whatever, I don't mind. Congratulations on your evolution!"

Butterfree smiled, but slumped into Ash's arms, tired from her exertion and two evolutions. He set her down carefully, turning to Team Rocket, who were holding their heads in pain.

Ash whipped out a rope and lassoed the trio while they were vulnerable, trapping them and tossing them onto the ground.

Ekans and Koffing followed soon after, eyes swirled from getting knocked-out from Pikachu and Lucario.

"Alright, crisis averted. I'll call Officer Jenny to see what we should do," Ash stated, activating his Pokégear. Misty looked to Staryu apologetically and returned her Pokémon.

Fearow watched Ash anxiously. She decided to speak up. _"Why…why did you protect me like that? I was defiant, proud, and vicious towards you and Metapod…"_ Caterpie's stubborn fight, Ash's battle intuition and personal strength…it was enough to force her to re-evaluate her thinking.

"All of my Pokémon are a part of my family and a friend/comrade to the end, Fearow, like it or not. In exchange for your company on this journey, my journey to be the very best, I will treat you well, train you hard, and risk my life to protect yours."

Fearow made up her mind there. She would stay with Ash, become stronger, and repay him.

His Pokégear connected to the Viridian Police Station. "Oh, hello Officer Jenny? Yes, I'm aware that Team Rocket were bailed out. They're actually with me right now." Ash continued to speak, being questioned by Officer Jenny. "Oh, yes, we're perfectly fine. We're working something out actually."

Misty, Lucario, and Pikachu raised eyebrows, but left it to Ash. They could trust in his decisions. Misty had a different bone to pick anyway.

The call ended and Ash turned around. Fearow walked up to her trainer, head bowed down.

" _If you would still accept me as one of yours, I would like to join you, Ash. I'm sorry for my behavior earlier…_ "

Ash stopped her with a warm hug. "Welcome to the family, Fearow. We're kind of small at the moment, but I hope you'll feel comfortable with us."

"You have some explaining to do, Ash Ketchum…" Misty said, hands on her hips.

Ash scratched the back of his head. "Well, there's not much to explain. I have Aura powers, I got taught how to use it by Lucario. My Aura, unlike Lucario's, can expand to different types, though I primarily use the Physical moves. There's not really much else to say?"

Misty opened her mouth, but really couldn't find any words to say. After a moment or so, she just sighed. "Well, that's pretty cool, I guess. I probably shouldn't have been surprised after the whole 'I can speak to Pokémon' thing."

Lucario smirked off to the side at how nonchalantly she dispelled one of Ash's greatest fears. Being rejected for his powers.

Ash smiled at the orange-haired girl, then started to rummage through his backpack. "Well, it's getting kind of late, so how about I make us dinner!"

Misty and Pikachu nodded vigorously while Lucario went off to find his own food. Butterfree and Fearow looked at each other, confused as to Pikachu's reaction.

" _Oh, that's right, you haven't had one of Ash's meals yet. His homemade Pokéfood is delish!"_

Ash started to hum as he made stew and prepared the Pokéfood.

…..

"Oh…what hit us?" Jessie groaned as she stirred awake.

"I did and I will again if you don't stop trying to kidnap my family and friends," Ash answered.

"Gah!" Jessie, James, and Meowth gasped in surprise, turning their heads to see the young trainer sitting on the ground, legs crossed, and looking at them.

They looked around in worry, trying to find Ekans and Koffing. "Where are our Pokémon?!" James asked.

Ash bonked him over the head, putting a finger to his lips. "Shhhhhh….people are sleeping." He pointed at Misty's sleeping bag and Pikachu curled up on his own bag. "Ekans and Koffing are fine. I split a Super Potion between them. They're sleeping behind you, as well."

Jessie and James turned to confirm, sighing in relief when they saw their Pokémon sleeping safely. Ash observed them carefully.

The genuine worry in their eyes. The loosening of their muscles in relief. Meowth's automatic gesture of putting his paw to his heart.

"What're you starin' at?" Meowth asked.

Ash shrugged. "I don't know. You three are different from what I expected."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jessie said in confusion.

"What expectations did you have for members of Team Rocket?" James asked.

"Records from past encounters with Team Rocket list members of the organization as cruel and vicious characters. Sinister of mind and intent, they treat their Pokémon only as tools and a means to the end, with no companionship involved whatsoever. It would be far beyond most ordinary Team Rocket grunts to display the sort of worry you had for your own Pokémon, as well as even consider working with a character such as Meowth, a Pokémon able to speak the human language," Ash stated monotonically.

The trio stared at him strangely. Ash shook his head. "Anyway, point is, you three actually seem like decent people, unlike the majority of the people in Team Rocket. Why did you three join Team Rocket?"

James, Meowth, and Jessie looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Ash.

"I guess we don't really have a reason not to tell you," James said slowly.

Three stomachs growled loudly and the trio looked down. "Oh, we haven't eaten in days…" Jessie complained.

Ash raised an eyebrow, but shrugged again. He stood up and walked away, the trio following him with their eyes. "Meowth, do you eat human or Pokémon food?"

"I can eat both, but I like human food more. Why?" the cat Pokémon asked.

Ash uncovered the pot on the set-up picnic table and brought over three bowls and three spoons. He ladled warm beef stew into each and grabbed a fresh piece of bread for each, before returning to the trio.

Jessie, James, and Meowth sniffed and started drooling slightly, having only eaten stale bread for the past few days. Ash cut the bindings and handed over the food. They took it graciously and began to eat. They tore at the fresh bread hungrily and slurped down large amounts of soup.

Comical tears ran down their faces as they ate. "It tastes so good!" they cried simultaneously.

While they ate, Ash brought over the rest of the pot, refilling their bowls as they finished and handing them some more bread. Eventually, the three had their fill, leaned back, and sighed in satisfaction.

"You're a good kid, Ash. Thanks for the meal," Meowth said sincerely.

"We haven't had a meal like that in who knows how long," James added.

Ash smiled. "No problem! So, will you three tell me your stories? I don't need it to be long, I just want to know what happened."

The trio shrugged and complied. "You could say that we all joined Team Rocket because we just didn't belong anywhere else."

"I'm a talkin' Meowth, kid. That ain't normal, I'm pretty sure you can understand that. I fell in love with a Meowth once in my past, but she rejected me, preferred humans to me. So, I tried to be more human-like, which is why I can talk like ya. When I went back to Meowzie, she called me a freak…so I decided, I couldn't mix in with my kind anymore. I joined Team Rocket 'cus my first words I spoke was 'rocket.' Might seem kinda weird, but it was all I had going for me."

"I used to be a rich kid, the only son of two millionaires. But when you have anything and everything you could ever want, you get bored. Life was really boring, except for playing with my friend Growlie, my Growlithe. Eventually, I got arranged to marry a girl named Jessebelle. I was fine with it initially, but she was really controlling and creepy." James shuddered. "So, I ran away. I tried a few other things, like joining Pokémon Tech and a bicycle gang together with Jessie at one point, but none of them fit. I ended up in Team Rocket."

"My mom was actually a Team Rocket operative, a pretty high ranking one too. One day, she disappeared during a mission and I was put into a foster home. I learned that she was on a mission to find Mew, but was never heard from again. I'll save you a sob story and just say I didn't have the best childhood. I did a lot of things through life, trying to become a Pokémon Nurse, enrolling in Pokémon Tech, being in the bicycle gang with James, working as a weathergirl, becoming a ninja…you get the point. Anyway, eventually, I ended up in Team Rocket too. Nothing else worked out for me."

Ash stared at the trio, seeing complete honesty as they told their stories. "Your boss doesn't seem to hold you in high regards, considering that you three were apparently starving before this. If I offered you guys a different job, would you guys accept? A job that I know you would keep? If you accept, you'll be able to avoid more jail time. On the other hand, you could serve the time for me turning you in, return to your boss, and then eventually get chased down again, living off of whatever food and money you can scrape up."

Even without the 'subtle' discouraging of continuing their current career, the trio didn't personally enjoy their current position.

In the event that Ash hadn't been so competent in capturing the trio and instead constantly did something like blasting them away, they would have hypothetically tried over-and-over again simply because of how desperate they were to earn something.

"We'd happily accept a different option," James stated. "What would this job entail?"

Meowth and Jessie listened intently.

"I'm sure you could help Professor Oak as assistants. Jessie, James, you both seem to like Pokémon at the very least. I'm sure with some review, your nurse training might help you out a lot, Jessie.

Playing with Growlie might help you in taking care of younger Pokémon, James. If not, you'd be able to learn enough to aid him regardless.

Meowth, you would definitely be a great help, translating what Pokémon are saying for Professor Oak. He'd probably appreciate it if you would let him study you a little bit, see if there's something different about you that allowed you to learn human speech or if it's an effort-based thing."

James, Jessie, and Meowth glanced at each other and huddled up to discuss the option in-depth. Ash sat back and relaxed, thinking about what he would teach his team members next. It wasn't as if the trio were any real threat to him, even while distracted.

' _Butterfree has many, many moves open to her now, but many of them are innately tuned to her, so I already have a set list to work with. Aside from that, conditioning will be continued as normal._

 _Pikachu has a solid offensive move set, great speed, and strong attack power, both physically and with his electricity. He's a glass cannon at the moment, however, so it'd be best to give him a few defensive balancing moves. He should be pretty close to learning Agility._

 _Fearow is speedy and a good physical attacker, so I'll complement her current attack power with some utility moves, then teach her some extra attack moves. She should be able to help Butterfree with learning aerial combat.'_

"Hey, Ash, we've made up our minds," James called out quietly, snapping the trainer out of his thoughts.

"We'll take you up on the offer," Jessie answered.

"The boss won't even care if we quit, doubt he knows we even exist with our track record. So, what now?" Meowth asked.

Ash nodded and quickly scanned their emotions and thoughts with his Aura senses, checking one last time for their trustworthiness. Satisfied with the results, he asked about one of his major secret objectives.

"You can head off towards Pallet Town starting tomorrow. You'll probably need to avoid Viridian City, but you guys should be fine on finding your way there. I'll give you some money and food to last you on your way. When you get there, you two should probably buy new clothes, James, Jessie." They nodded. "Anyway, after that, find Professor Oak's Lab and I'll either be in Pewter City before or at the time you arrive, so I'll notify him myself. For food, you can either stay with Professor Oak or visit the fenced blue house with red ceiling tiles and a yellow mailbox. My mom lives there and she'll cook a homemade meal if you ever get tired of Professor Oak's ordered food."

"Wow, you're gonna help us out that much? You're a real pal, Ash!" Meowth shouted quietly, sparkles of admiration shining in his eyes.

"No problem. In return, however, I would like you three to tell me as much about Team Rocket as you can."

"Why do you want to know about Team Rocket?" James asked.

Conflict ran over Ash's face for a moment. "I…I'd like to know more about the organization, in the event that I ever need to face them or anything like that. Knowledge is power and all that, right?"

The trio nodded in understanding. "The boss of Team Rocket is Giovanni, the Viridian Gym Leader, though he's barely been taking place in Gym duties. I think I heard something about him taking on one last gym challenge later in the year to test some secret weapon. That's higher tier information though, not something we grunts would know about. We don't know anything else, sadly enough."

Ash clicked his teeth in annoyance. "Thank you for the information, you three. Here, I'll give you guys some spare sleeping bags I have with me. Get to sleep, the day's been rough for you."

He rummaged through his backpack again and tossed them the sleeping bags. He zoned out as they thanked him and set-up their beds, eager to get to sleep and excited for the future.

' _Didn't get all of the information you were looking for?'_ Lucario asked, initiating telepathy.

' _I would've liked to know where the main base of the organization was…'_ Ash replied without batting an eye.

' _And what would you have done then? You won't be able to take on this mission alone, Ash. You'll need more aid. At the very least, you have a window of opportunity to capture Giovanni himself.'_

' _Yes, I guess so. We'll need more companions to make any big moves, anyway.'_ A feeling of joy ran through the mental link. _'But we're making good progress. Butterfree and Fearow, my cute daughter and my prideful younger sister.'_

' _You have a strange mindset for your relationship with Pokémon, Ash,'_ Lucario quipped.

' _Were you and Sir Aaron not brothers? I don't see why I shouldn't treat Pokémon as equally as a human. Butterfree and Fearow are part of my precious family, along with you and Pikachu. And any future Pokémon that we meet and join with us will be no less.'_

' _And that is why I believe you will become a great man, Ash…good night.'_

' _Good night, Lucario.'_

The link shut off and Ash turned to look at the radiant moon. A black silhouette was present in the outline of the moon before it suddenly vanished. Ash quirked an eyebrow, but shrugged. Eventually, he went to sleep. He had a good dream that night.

…..


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I most likely will not have many of the 'side-episodes' that are within the anime. Some of them are mostly filler than has some kind of event that puts Ash closer to whichever Pokémon starred in the episode and/or an attempt by Team Rocket to steal something. Since the Team Rocket trio is now a non-problem, I honestly will probably skip most side-events or, at the very least, shorten it immensely, as a sort of 'as the journey continued' summary, with large portions being important events or battles. Also, I'm not entirely sure if I will make sure he gets all of the Pokémon that he originally has. I'm sorry for people that may like a Pokémon that I skip, in the event that I do skip them.**

Ash woke early to prepare sandwiches for breakfast and for Team Rocket to take on their way to Pallet Town. He also woke up just to make sure Misty didn't panic at the sight of the trio sleeping unrestricted.

Luckily enough, Misty stayed calm when she woke up, giving Ash the chance to explain the situation. She took it in stride, figuring that Ash wouldn't make any stupid decisions. Team Rocket soon woke up, thanking Ash profusely again after realizing that the events of last night weren't some delirious dream.

The trio of ex-Rockets took Ash's sandwiches thankfully and set off in their Meowth-head air balloon towards Pallet Town. The raven-haired trainer sent them off with a smile and after everybody else had eaten, they set off towards Pewter City, Butterfree and Fearow flying freely, Pikachu on Ash's shoulder, and Lucario and Misty following steadily.

"I think I feel eyes on us…" Ash whispered. Pikachu and Butterfree, who was flying closely, heard the comment and got ready for sudden action. "Don't alert the others…the presence doesn't seem hostile…more-so curious."

' _The Aura is with me,'_ Ash intoned mentally. He quickly located the Aura of a stronger than usual bird Pokémon watching their group from a tree.

"Butterfree, Pikachu, String Shot and Thunder Wave, two o'clock."

The two Pokémon immediately complied, shooting the double dose of disabling attacks off into the trees. Misty and Fearow were startled by the sudden action while Lucario watched unfazed but approving.

They heard an indignant squawk, similar to the one that Fearow cried when she was struck down. Ash palmed his face and immediately slipped into a sprint. _'Oh, I'm stupid, that was high up in the trees.'_

He flickered from vision as he channeled Aura to speed himself up immensely, dashing to the falling Pokémon. Ash easily made it in time to catch it. A Pidgeotto.

Ash returned to the group, Pidgeotto in tow. He set down the bird Pokémon and sat face-to-face with it, the rest of the group circling and watching the proceeding with curiosity. The Pidgeotto shuffled nervously under scrutiny.

"So, why were you watching us travel so intently?" Ash asked intensely.

" _I, uh, was just curious about the peculiar group I saw moving along, that's all!"_ Pidgeotto answered in a hurry. " _Wait a second, you can't even-"_

"Oh, I can understand you, don't worry about that." Pidgeotto tilted his head at that, but Ash continued. "Don't worry about it too much. Anyway, I can tell that you're lying…your Aura is fluctuating all over the place. Tell me the real reason why you were watching us." Ash said this with a smile, but Pidgeotto could the mask of a demon floating behind the young trainer.

He started to sweat bullets, trying to find a way out of the situation. There was no way to avoid it. " _I got drawn in by the pretty lady here! Alright?! There, I said it…"_ he shouted in panic, pointing at Fearow.

Ash raised an eyebrow, Pikachu and Butterfree sniggered, Lucario watched with interest, and Fearow blushed. Ash looked between the two birds.

' _Hm, they'd be good practice partners. Fearow seems interested enough.'_ Ash smirked. "Would you like to join us, Pidgeotto? You seem to be pretty bored here in the forest. We can travel together and have fun! And you can get to know Fearow more. She seems to be interested somewhat at the very least," Ash stated nonchalantly.

Fearow flustered, but really didn't have anything she could say to retort. Pidgeotto nodded, but walked to the other side of the clearing they were currently in. Ash nodded in understanding. "Butterfree, you're up."

The butterfly Pokémon nodded and flew up. "Alright, let's get started. Butterfree, Stun Spread!"

Butterfree scattered golden powder in the air before pumping her wings, propelling the stun spores towards Pidgeotto with along with a strong gust of wind.

The bird snapped out of his shock at the sudden combo and avoided the cloud of spores narrowly, but still buffeted slightly by the winds. His wings glowed bright blue and he swung them, launching blades of wind at the butterfly.

' _Air Cutter? Interesting, they don't learn that normally.'_ "Butterfree, Tailwind and evade!" Winds whipped up behind her and boosted her speed, allowing her to easily evade. "Good job, Confusion!"

Butterfree's eyes glowed green, surrounding Pidgeotto in psychic energy. He struggled in pain, trying to break out of the attack. Eventually, the attack stopped, leaving Pidgeotto panting in mid-air.

The bird swiped his wings, raising sand and tossing it towards the butterfly. She dodged out of the way, only to be met by a charging Pidgeotto, charging up a Wing Attack. "Sleep Powder and Psybeam!"

She spread the green powder and launched the beam of psychic energy from her mouth, exploding against Pidgeotto. The bird Pokémon slowed down from the attack. Right in the middle of the powder field.

Pidgeotto instantly dropped like a fly. Ash was about to move to catch him, but smiled when he saw something at the edge of his vision. Fearow swooped in and caught the bird gently.

Ash threw a Pokéball and caught him officially before immediately bringing him back out. He patched up Pidgeotto with some ample potion application, since he didn't take any particularly severe damage, and woke him up with a berry.

"Awesome, new party member. Hm…we should be almost out of Viridian Forest. I think we can spend some time on training. I have a few moves I want you guys to learn." The Pokémon groaned.

…..

 **A/N: So, I did make use of Ash's innate photographic memory from his last life to bypass TM's one-time usage that existed up until the recent generation or so. TM moves that Ash teaches to his Pokémon will most likely be just as easy to learn as they are in the games: instant. However, as such, I'm not going to have Ash just teach his Pokémon every single TM move they can possibly learn and they won't master the moves immediately. Also, I was thinking about doing little Pokédex checks or something once in a while to show what moves which Pokémon knows, but….that'd get really tedious. Hey, battles will always be a surprise when a move you didn't know they had pops up! Also, unless otherwise noted, assume that only Pikachu is out and about.**

After another rigorous training session, Ash and company continued through the Viridian Forest, running into a strange samurai trainer on their way. Pidgeotto and Fearow easily outclassed his Pinsir and Metapod, but did so humbly.

"Interesting! The trust your Pokémon have in you and your level of strategy are even more impressive than the other Pallet trainers that passed by! Good luck on your journey!" the samurai said.

Finally exiting the Viridian Forest, Misty let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Still haven't gotten over Bug-Types, Mist? You were doing so well with Butterfree," Ash quipped.

The orange-haired girl huffed and crossed her arms in annoyance, but her face was slightly tinged red. _'A nickname…'_

Ash immediately headed over to the Pokémon Center to make a phone call, handing Pidgeotto, Fearow, and Butterfree over to Nurse Joy for a check-up.

"Hello, Professor Oak? This is Ash," he called out when the phone connected.

"Oh, Ash, to what pleasure do I owe this call?" the old Professor asked.

"Just wanted to give you a heads-up. There's three people heading over to you, a group of three, a woman with red hair, a man with blue hair, and a peculiar third member. I think they could do well as assistants for you and you said you were looking for some."

"Oh, is that so? Thank you for the consideration, Ash, and I'll be sure to welcome them. How is your journey going so far?"

"Well, I'm off to challenge the Pewter Gym after this call and we'll most likely set off for Cerulean City immediately after. Butterfree and Pidgeotto have been the recent additions to my team and they're fitting in well."

"I see, that's good to hear. Hm…well, I'll be taking my leave now Ash."

"Alright. Goodbye Professor!"

Ash looked to Misty as the call ended. He'd felt concern spike up inside of her when he'd said Cerulean City. He immediately palmed his face upon slightly deeper thought of the city. _'The Sensational Sisters, a squad of three performers…and their younger sister, Misty. The only one of the four with an actual drive to manage the gym, while the other three would rather perform.'_

"Are you ok, Misty?"

"Hm, what? Yea, I'm fine…just thinking about something," she responded, clearly out of it.

"Ash, your Pokémon are completely healthy and ready to go!" Nurse Joy interrupted, coming out of the side-room. She handed over the tray of Pokéballs.

"Thank you, Nurse Joy." Ash latched the balls back onto his belt. "Hey Misty, let's get going to the gym!"

Misty snapped out of her daze and nodded. "Alright."

Ash glanced at her again in concern. "Hey Mist, you know you can tell me what's on your mind, right? I can try to help…"

"…thanks, Ash, but I'll be ok. I just have something I need to think about. Let's just keep going," Misty said with a tired smile.

Ash let the matter drop and nodded, continuing towards the gym. They entered through a door surrounded by rocks and enter a pitch-black room. A light flickered on and pointed to a man sitting cross-legged on a slate of rock.

"Who goes there?" The man's eyes looked to be naturally squinted.

"My name is Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town. I would like to challenge you to a gym battle for the Boulder Badge."

"From Pallet Town…would you happen to be a starting trainer?"

"Yes. I've been on my journey for three or four days, give or take a few hours."

"I hope you don't think that a gym battle will be anything like a normal trainer battle…"

"No, I'm well aware of what I'm asking for, Brock, Gym Leader of Pewter City and Rock-Type specialist."

"Hmph. Very well then. I have no choice, but to accept your challenge."

The walls of the gym opened up and a field of rock came together from both side. Misty worked her way over to the spectator area.

"Geodude, go!"

"Butterfree, battle ready!"

Misty watched the battle intently, curious as to what Ash would pull out now. He did most of the training off with just his Pokémon, so she never knew what he would pull out next. She heard a snort next to her and turned to see an older man with a red cap and long beard.

"Sending out a Bug and Flying-type against a Rock-Type? A rookie mistake. He won't be able to beat Brock."

A vein popped on Misty's forehead. "What right do you have to judge Ash when you don't even know him?"

"Brock is a trainer with talent beyond the local gym…he won't lose to some flat-out rookie."

"Geodude, Tackle attack, go!"

The rock Pokémon launched itself at Butterfree with speed surprising for its evolutionary species. Not quite fast enough to.

"Butterfree, no time to waste, Sleep Spread and Confusion!" The butterfly Pokémon nodded and released her green powder.

Brock was confused. _'Sleep Spread isn't a Pokémon move?'_

Butterfree launched a gust to blow the powder at Geodude and Brock snapped out of it, surprised at the tactic. "Geodude, quick, dodge!"

"Too late," Ash stated. Butterfree's eyes glowed and Geodude was surrounded by psychic energy. It was enough to hold it in place for a moment and the sleep powder flew right into it.

"Butterfree, Energy Ball, low power!"

"What?!" Brock shouted in surprise. A rookie shouldn't be able to teach that move to a Pokémon!

Nonetheless, the green ball formed and slammed into Geodude, knocking it backwards into the wall and fainting it, spirals in its eyes.

"Geodude is unable to battle! The winner is Butterfree! Please send out your next Pokémon!" the referee declared.

"Return, Geodude! You did tried your best. Onix, it's your turn!"

The giant rock snake roared as he came out. "Butterfree, come back. Pidgeotto, time for battle!"

However, instead of just releasing Pidgeotto, he let out Lucario and Fearow as well. "Hey, what are you doing?" Brock questioned.

"I'm just letting my Pokémon out to watch…it's not against the rules, right?"

Brock sweat dropped at the unorthodox behavior, but conceded the point. "Ok, no more beginner play. Rock Tomb, Onix!"

"Double Team, Pidgeotto. Follow up with a Twister!"

Pidgeotto phased out and reappeared with multiple copies. Onix hurled the boulders at one, but it was only an image. All of the Pidgeottos flapped their wings and raised a tornado to grind at Onix.

"Hey, don't bully Onix!"

Misty turned to her sides, startled by the random voices that came out. She looked around her and found ten younger kids that looked similar to Brock. _'Oh, these must be his little siblings.'_ She noticed that the old guy from earlier was further away. Shrugging, she returned her attention to the battle

"Onix, Rock Polish!" The giant rock snake's body gleamed from the move. "Now, Slam!" It launched itself bodily at the bird.

"Pidgeotto, re-gain the advantage, Sand Attack and Quick Attack." The sand was blown into Onix's face and Pidgeotto repositioned himself for his attack.

Brock smirked, the bird wouldn't be able to overpower Onix, even with an angle. "Now, Steel Wing!"

Pidgeotto slammed his wings into the larger Pokémon, knocking it into the ground. It was knocked out. The referee stood in shock. A trainer of four days beat Brock? "O-Onix is unable to continue! The match is over, Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town, is the winner!"

"Onix, return! Good fight, buddy." Brock walked over to Ash. "I underestimated your abilities and for that, I apologize. You trained your Pokémon well and have an obvious grasp of tactics in battle, far beyond any trainers I've had pass by in a long time. You were able to surpass my type advantage and win the matches easily. I award you with the Boulder Badge."

He handed over the small token, which Ash accepted with a smile and immediately hooked to the inside of his jacket. "Thank you. It was a good match, Brock."

"Yes, but my Pokémon didn't stand a chance. Your Pokémon were raised well beyond what I'd expect from any trainer of four days. Sadly, regulation wouldn't have allowed me to do so anyway, but I would have preferred using a three or four badge team against you."

Ash smiled at the compliment. Gym leaders usually held teams of varying difficulties in their gyms for specific settings of trainers. Not all trainers started in the same place, after all, so they had to carry multiple teams that would be used according to how many badges the challenger had.

"I also appreciate that you toned down the power of your Pokémon's attacks. I respect your kindness to Pokémon, which is also obviously apparent in how affectionate your Pokémon are with you," Brock said with a sweat drop. During his little speech, Butterfree had floated over and started nuzzling Ash. "I actually wanted to become a Pokémon Breeder, you know? But I had to take over to gym to support my siblings and make up for my absent dad."

Ash raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really, you want to become a Pokémon Breeder? That's a rare enough choice, but respectable. It's sad that you aren't able to follow your dream though," Ash said sadly.

Brock looked down sadly as well, but suddenly a voice broke out through the gym. "You can follow your dreams, Brock! I'll take over the gym for you!"

Misty turned to see the bearded man from before walk up and take off the beard and cap, revealing himself to be an older Brock.

"Dad…"

"I'm sorry for leaving you for so many years…but I had failed a Trainer and I needed some time before I could face you all again…"

"…Ash, could you wait outside the gym for a few moments? I need to have some private words with my father."

Ash tilted his head, but nodded. Misty came down to join him and the duo left to wait outside.

…..

"Sorry for imposing, Ash," Brock said.

"No, I'm happy to have another friend along," he stated.

"So, what is talking with Pokémon like, Ash? It seems like it would be very helpful in many scenario."

"Oh, it's awesome. I can understand my Pokémon better and talk with them all the time. On the other hand, sometimes it can be negative. I mean, I'm sure Pikachu would sound a lot cuter if I just heard 'Pika-ka-chu!' instead of what he's actually saying."

" _Hey, don't make me shock you!"_ Pikachu shouted indignantly. _"I'm still kind of cute, aren't I?"_

"Yea, sure little buddy. Hey, we're at Mount Moon," Ash called back, snapping Misty back to attention. "Come on, let's go."

The group walked through the cave peacefully enough, not running into peculiar sight. A few wild Pokémon skittered about, minding their own business. Brock eventually decided to catch a Zubat to introduce diversity to his team and study a different type of Pokémon.

"So, why do you keep your Pokémon out and about so much? I'm curious as to your reason," Brock asked as they walked along.

"I don't really have a particular reason," Ash said contemplatively. "Pikachu just doesn't like being inside the Pokéball, the other three enjoy flying around more. Out here, Pidgeotto and Fearow can mingle more as well.

Logically speaking, as well, they get more exercise while flying around then they do sitting around inside a Pokéball, regardless of how comfortable they feel. Out here, they're constantly using their muscles, except for the lazy mouse on my shoulder, and I get more ambient bonding time with them."

" _Hey, I resent that!"_ Pikachu snapped back. Ash chuckled and scratched the electric mouse's head.

"I was just kidding, buddy. Anyway, another reason is that if I have them out and watching gym battles, they can learn from what they see, too."

Brock nodded and put a hand to his chin contemplatively. "That makes sense…rather than only gaining experience in battle, they can gain theoretical experience through watching and practical whenever they have battles or through training."

Ash nodded in confirmation, closing his eyes for the moment. When he re-opened them, he noticed something pink walking around in the corner of his eyes.

A Clefairy was walking away, holding a Moon Stone in its hand. "Is that a Clefairy? I wonder what it's doing with it…it seems to be heading somewhere."

Ash decided to follow it and see where it was heading. Brock and Misty glanced at each other and shrugged, going along with it.

The young trainer followed it without any pretense of hiding. He had no reason to do so and doing so would only arouse suspicion. Clefairy could feel the presence of her trackers, but she didn't feel harmful intent from them. She continued on.

…..

After some more trekking through the mountain, they eventually reached their destination. A giant Moon Stone sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by smaller Moon Stones and dancing Clefairy.

"Oh, that's interesting. Some kind of ritual, I guess?" Ash said off-handedly.

"Moon Stones…something to do with their evolution?" Brock noted.

"This seems to be a pretty rare event. I guess we're lucky to see it happening."

The group took seats a distance away from the ceremony, watching the event peacefully. They settled down comfortably, having not rested since leaving Viridian Forest. They sat against the wall, Misty next to Ash, Brock leaning forward to watch carefully, Pikachu nested in Ash's lap, Butterfree on his head, and Pidgeotto and Fearow next to each other.

One by one, the group fell asleep.

Clefairies evolved into Clefables.

The dance continued.

Pidgeotto and Fearow lay together comfortably.

Misty's head leaned onto Ash's shoulder.

Pikachu snored softly.

The dance stopped.

Ash continued to watch.

The new group of Clefairies and Clefables walked towards their resting area. One Clefable stood at the forefront. " _Hello humans, thank you for not disturbing our ceremony."_

"I don't see why that would require thanks. Interrupting a beautiful ceremony like that is basically sacrilege."

The Clefable smiled. _"That is a good point. Regardless, we were told to deliver something to you, when you arrived here and we completed our ceremony. Will you accept it?"_

The Clefairy that they had followed earlier came forward, carrying something else. A silver and white egg. "Ah, it was meant for me to spot you."

" _Yes, that would be correct. The egg?"_ she asked, pushing it towards him slightly.

Ash reached out to receive it, holding the egg very carefully. _"_ I will take care of it as my own. Thank you."

" _We have one more thing for you,"_ the Clefable stated. She pulled out a strange blue and black stone and handed it to Ash. _"You may need that in the future. Keep it safe."_ Ash nodded and dozed off to sleep himself, holding the egg closely to his chest.

A tiny eye lit up within the egg, feeling the warm, comforting heartbeat of its holder.

…..

"Could you have done that the whole time, Ash?" Misty said with an eye twitch. She was still in an annoyed mood, having been embarrassed earlier in the morning when they all woke up.

"I can't Teleport us to anywhere I haven't already been," Ash said, hands held up defensively. He re-released Pidgeotto, Butterfree, Fearow, and Lucario. It took way too much energy to teleport full bodies.

"Can I please hold the egg, Ash?!" Brock pleaded again.

"No, Brock! It's my egg and I'm taking care of it myself," Ash snapped back.

"Oh, fine…"

The group continued on towards Cerulean City. _'Hey, Lucario?'_

' _Yes, Ash? Why are you speaking to me mentally?'_

' _It's nothing. I was just thinking, you've been awfully quiet through the journey so far…'_ Lucario snorted mentally. ' _What?'_

' _Nothing. It is just humorous how disconnected your behavior is from ordinary Trainers of this age, just how much consideration you actually give towards us.'_

' _What do you mean by that?'_

' _Humans generally barely even interact with their Pokémon in comparison to you, Ash. Most leave all of their Pokémon inside of the Pokéballs, talking to them only when they're training, battling, or eating. We aren't much of a conversationalist species, Ash. I wouldn't worry about us much, if we don't speak. It is simply how we function. The care that you show us is already more than enough."_

Ash glanced back at Lucario, who was walking with one eye slightly open and peering at Ash with a smile.

' _Thank you, Lucario.'_

Cerulean City finally came into view. Ash returned Lucario, Pidgeotto, Fearow, and Butterfree to his Pokéballs. Not having anything else to do, he headed directly for the gym.

"Hey, Ash, I'll meet up with you two in a bit, ok? I have something I need to do, so just meet me on the exit towards Vermilion City that you said you were going to take," Misty said nervously.

"Alright then, see you later Misty."

She walked off in a different direction while Ash and Brock continued on to the gym. Upon entering, they found a performance going on. Three attractive women were on the top of a tall diving stage. Hearts popped up in Brock's eyes and he jumped into an open seat of the audience, cheering alongside the crowd. Ash sweat dropped and went off to kill some time. _'The Sensational Sisters. I'll need to find them after their performance. Hm, I wonder where this goes,'_ he thought to himself as he moved downstairs.

…..


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I have no idea what the scale for height is even supposed to be in Pokémon, so I'm probably just going to ignore too much direct height referencing…apparently, since Charizard is approximately 5'7" tall, Ash is something like three feet tall…but then, looking at the Cerulean Gym episode, the Sensational Sisters are about a head taller than Ash, so having him at the height of which I indicated earlier, he would be around the same height as them. Therefore, make use of your imaginations and since the Sensation Sisters are older than Ash, just scale it in your mind as you will. If heights and stuff don't really bother you, awesome, if they do, well, not sure what to tell you. Sorry for long A/N, on with the story!**

"An aquarium, that makes sense. It is the Water-Type Gym, after all. They have actual fish floating around here? You don't see those often," Ash commented off-handedly.

"…was totally awesome!"

"I know, it was so great!"

"Daisy, the dive you did was super!" the blue haired woman said.

"The practice really paid off," the blonde responded.

"Totally~!" the pink haired one agreed.

The three sisters laughed together before noticing the boy looking into the aquarium.

"Um, hello, like, who are you?" Daisy asked. The three sisters noted Ash's features. For a kid whose height appeared to be indicative of a ten-year-old, he was rather attractive and they could see some great potential for his looks in the future. His muscles were streamlined and he didn't have much baby fat, if any, remaining.

Ash turned to look at the trio, blinking a few times as he registered their presence. "Oh, sorry about that, I was just watching the fish. You three are the Sensational Sisters, the Gym Leaders for Cerulean City, right?"

"Yea, I'm Daisy," the blonde one stated.

"I'm Violet," the purple-haired one said.

"And I'm Lily!" the pink one exclaimed.

"I'd like to challenge you three for the Cascade Badge, then."

"Here, let's like, get out of this stuffy corridor," Violet said, leading them out into a more open area.

"Anyway, the problem is, we don't really feel like battling anymore," Daisy said, crossing her arms behind her head.

"See, we just beaten three times in a row by kids from this nowhere place called Pallet Town! It was just one defeat after another and my eyes were spinning from all the losses," Violet said, gesturing as she talked.

"We had to send all of our Pokémon to the Pokémon Center," Daisy continued.

"This is the only Pokémon we have left," Lily finished, sending out a Goldeen. It flopped on the ground for a few seconds before she returned it.

"If you want, we can just give you the Cascade Badge," Daisy offered. "Seel!" She clapped her hands as she called out, eventually bringing a Seel carrying a case over to her. She picked out the Cascade Badge and held it out towards Ash.

He sweat dropped at their behavior. "I'd rather earn the badge…"

"Just take it, a badge is a badge," Daisy said.

"Hold it!" a familiar voice called out. Ash looked towards the entrance and Misty was standing there. She came over and jumped down over the fence, dropping onto the floor where he was. "I'll battle him if you won't! I'm not letting you just give away a badge like that!"

"Oh, so I was right. You were one of the Sisters," Ash commented.

"Psh, yea right. There are only three Sensational Sisters and one runt," Lily commented.

Ash narrowed his eyes.

"So, little sister, it's a surprise to see you back so soon," Daisy stated.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't come back until you became a great Pokémon trainer?" Violet mocked.

"Well, yea, I did say something like that when I left…" Misty said in a low voice.

"Yea, you left here, pretending that you wanted to be a Pokémon trainer because you couldn't compare with us. We're obviously more talented and beautiful than you are," Lily said condescendingly.

Misty tried to retort, but somebody else beat her to it. "Isn't it kind of petty for an older sister to compare herself to a younger sister? Most people would think that they were just so insecure that they needed to do it to feel good. Besides, I'm sure once Misty grows up to be the same age as you three, she'll leave you in her shadows," Ash replied.

The trio growled at Ash. Misty smiled in thanks for the back-up. "Well, if that's not the reason, I guess you just came back because you couldn't make it as a Pokémon trainer," Daisy commented, hand on her face and mimicking sadness.

"That's not it either! I just came back because Ash needed to come for his badge!"

Daisy raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? _You_ landed a boyfriend like that? You'd think he could do better," Daisy commented.

Misty blushed, ignoring the insult aimed at her. "He's not my boyfriend! Anyway, since you three can't battle him, I'll do it to test him for the badge," she said calmly.

Ash gave her a thumbs-up and a smile. "Well, whatever, do what you want," Daisy said, handing the badge over to Misty.

Misty led Ash to another part of the gym and onto a pool field for their battle. The Sensational Sisters tagged along, interested in seeing Misty battle despite their words earlier.

"I call on Staryu!"

"Pikachu, you feeling up to a fight?"

" _I'd rather not fight a friend,"_ Pikachu replied casually. Ash nodded in acceptance.

"Well, that's fine. Butterfree, battle stance! Let's start it off with a Stun Spread," Ash ordered.

"Staryu, into the water and start using Water Gun!"

The sisters watched Butterfree launch her wind-boosted spores, impressed with the innovative tactic. They were honestly surprised at Misty's reaction time to the attack. Butterfree flew around, easily dodging the spurts of water.

"Staryu, Rapid Spin and Bubblebeam from underwater."

After watching how Ash and his Pokémon fought, Misty trained on her own skills as well. Staryu spun violently in the water, raising up a twister of water to inhibit Butterfree. The starfish shot bubbles and chased the butterfly persistently.

"Alright, that's enough. Energy Ball!"

Butterfree charged up the ball quickly and launched it. Misty gasped, forgetting completely about the attack. The ball blasted into the water and slammed into Staryu, exploding underwater and knocking out the starfish, swirls in its eyes.

"Staryu, return! Nice work…now, I call on Starmie!"

"Butterfree, return! Beautiful job, Butterfree. Fearow, battle stance!"

"Starmie, use Confuse Ray!"

"Agility!"

"Starmie, use Swift and then Confuse Ray!"

The starfish shot stars from its central gem, which homed onto Fearow. They shattered against Fearow, flinching her and making her an easy target for Confuse Ray. The move landed without incident. Ash smiled.

"Assurance!"

Her wings glowed purple and she immediately dashed to Starmie, slamming her attack into it. The move did extra damage and was super effective as a result of Starmie's Psychic typing. The gem on Starmie blinked and lost its glow, signaling its unconscious state.

Misty sighed. "Starmie, return! You put up a nice fight."

"Fearow, good work. Return!"

Misty and Ash got off of their respective standing areas and walked towards to where the Sensational Sisters were spectating. Misty looked dejected at her loss. Ash gave her both a thankful and comforting hug.

"Thank you for the great match, Misty," Ash said sincerely, "but don't look so down!"

Misty smiled at her cheery companion. "Thanks, Ash. I'm not down about the match, really. I just wanted to show my sisters that I could become a good trainer, but since I lost, I'm not sure how they'll take it…" she said quietly.

"Hey, Misty," Daisy called out. "Quit hugging your boyfriend and come over here!"

Misty blushed furiously and broke off the hug. They resumed making their way over to the sisters. The sisters looked at each other and started to talk.

"Well, like we expected you lost," Violet said when they arrived.

"But, you did, like, way better than any of us would have against him," Lily admitted.

"And we've been thinking about what Ash said to us earlier."

"So, we realized that we've been super jerks to you…"

"And we want to say sorry, Misty, even though it doesn't make up for everything we've said to you."

Ash smiled. "Well, that's progress."

"Thank you sisters," Misty said. "Now then, Ash Ketchum, of Pallet Town, I'd like to present you the Cascade Badge!" She handed over the water drop-shaped token.

Ash took the badge and clipped it to the inside of his jacket. "Awesome. So, Misty, what are you going to do now?"

She tilted her head. "What do you mean? I thought we were going to Vermilion City next?"

Ash shook his head with a smile. "Yea, we were. Don't mind my question. Come on, let's go find Brock."

…..

 **A/N: Travel-time wise, Ash was able to make it to Viridian City within a day, albeit stealing Misty's bike in the show. In this version, Ash isn't taking the journey at a leisurely pace, instead opting to jog alongside his own Pokémon just about everywhere, pausing to walk once in a while. Misty has her bike, Brock is older, so I imagine, at the very least, reasonable stamina. Using Pallet Town to Viridian City's distance as a scale, he's spent, give-or-take, five days getting to Cerulean City.**

After finding Brock at the Pokémon Center and healing up their Pokémon, the trio set off for Vermilion City.

"Why are we skipping Saffron City again? It's right on the way to Vermilion," Misty asked.

Ash hummed in thought. "Honestly, I don't really have a solid reason. I just feel like I'd be missing some important things if I don't…"

Misty nodded. They had no reason to rush anyway. Ash had gotten the first two Gym badges within a week, an insane rate for any trainer that she'd ever heard of. And she doubted that Ash would be slowing down.

…..

A day or two of traveling later, Ash and gang came across a trainer bragging of a 98 battle winning streak. Ash watched A.J's over-exertive training regimen that the trainer put his Pokémon under and decided to battle him.

Pikachu vs. Sandshrew.

Pidgeotto vs. Butterfree.

Fearow vs. Beedrill.

Butterfree vs. Rattata.

Each match was dominated by Ash, leaving A.J with things to reconsider. Continuing along, the group decided to take a break for a while. Brock thought making crepes would be a good idea, so Ash went off to find firewood. After wandering around in the forest, he found a kid jogging on a treadmill and being quizzed by elder students, obviously stressed.

He chased off the elder students, talked to the kid, whose name was Joe, and learned about Pokémon Tech. Ash regrouped with Misty and Brock, deciding to check out the academy. They weren't impressed by the programs. The school ran with a theoretical over practical mindset.

Misty battled Joe's Weepinbell with her Starmie to prove the point to the skeptical student. Eventually, the boys that Ash had chased away earlier returned with an attractive, but arrogant girl named Giselle, the apparent top student.

"Hmph, what right do you have to say this program is defective?"

"Pokémon battling doesn't run as a perfect system, like this school is designed to teach around. Pokémon-type advantages and level don't equate victory and simulations lack the experience that actual battles grant. If you don't leave any allowance to the vast variety of different type-moves that a Pokémon can learn, then your system is faulty by default, either way. I've been a trainer for, give-or-take, two weeks and I have two badges. By your system, you should be able to beat me easily enough." Giselle nodded. "Then battle me, and I'll show you how faulty your system is."

After a battle in which Pikachu stomped Cubone without any electrical attacks, Giselle acknowledged that battles didn't have any set victors and training could be done in multiple ways. Joe decided to start his own journey to collect gym badges and Giselle thanked Ash for opening her eyes. The trio left on a happy note.

…..

"Why are we treading through this forest randomly again?" Misty asked, vein popping on her forehead. "Instead of just following the road like we were?"

"Sorry, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides, we might find some new Pokémon!" Ash said enthusiastically. Butterfree floated around happily in her natural habitat.

Stopping to take a break at a nearby pond, they noticed an Oddish taking a drink from the water hole. "I'd like to catch that Pokémon! Go, Starmie!" Ash looked at the Oddish closely as it hobbled away.

' _I told her not to go so far away! Now they're going to try and catch her! Please let me make it on time!'_ a figure thought, running towards the clearing and getting ever closer.

"Misty, wait!" The Oddish tripped and fell on the ground, vulnerable to an attack. Misty halted her commands, turning to Ash.

"What, Ash?"

"That Oddish is already injured, but has signs of being recently treated. It's not a random Oddish," Ash stated.

' _Why did he do that?'_ He wondered as he sped into the clearing, stopping next to Oddish. " _Are you ok? They didn't hurt you, did they?"_

" _Bulbasaur! No, they didn't do anything. The boy in the red cap actually stopped the orange-haired one from trying,"_ Oddish replied.

Misty recalled Starmie and Ash walked towards the two Grass-Type Pokémon. Bulbasaur growled. " _Stay back, human!"_

"Calm down, I just want to help. If Oddish was treated like that, you must not have particularly easy access to general medicine." Ash took out a potion. "Can I?"

Bulbasaur stared at Ash warily. He glanced to Oddish, who nodded in return. " _I've been feeling kind of sore, Bulba…"_

The Seed Pokémon stepped back and allowed Ash to treat Oddish. He sprayed on the potion and brought out a few berries. "Here, for energy. You have some too, Bulbasaur." Oddish happily ate the Oran Berries and Bulbasaur ate them tentatively.

" _You…you aren't trying to catch us?"_

"No," Ash replied curtly. Bulbasaur didn't find anything strange with Ash's ability to understand him, considering who he'd always lived with. Instead, the Grass-type scanned his eyes for dishonesty, but found only caring and sincerity.

Bulbasaur thought long and hard about something as Ash watched him. _'It's a risk…but Melanie could use the help…'_ "… _Would you follow me please?"_

Ash looked to Brock and Misty before nodding. Bulbasaur led the group through the forest.

…..

Eventually, they reached a little wooden cottage with a blue-haired woman tending to a group of Pokémon. The woman turned and looked at the incoming group with surprise.

"Bulbasaur, you brought people here?" she asked with surprise.

Bulbasaur looked down apologetically. " _I'm sorry, Melanie, I just thought you could use some help with helping the others…"_

"It's ok, Bulbasaur, I understand. Thank you. If you think they can be trusted, then I will as well," she replied without batting an eye.

Ash blinked a few times. "You can understand what he's saying?"

"Oh, of course not! Bulbasaur has just been with me for so long, so I can get the gist of what he's saying," Melanie said with a smile.

Ash nodded in understanding and looked around at all of the Pokémon. "So, why do you take care of them like this?"

Melanie's expression instantly saddened. "They're all Pokémon abandoned by their trainers, left to fend for themselves. I'm taking care of them to help them recover and eventually rejoin the wild."

Ash nodded in understanding, hand clenched into a fist. He hated 'trainers' that would abandon their Pokémon with a passion. "Do you have anything I could help with?"

"Well, I was just about to make food for them, so if you can cook…"

"Brock and I can help with that. Lucario, Pidgeotto, Fearow, come on out!" The three Pokéballs snapped open and released their occupants. Fearow and Pidgeotto stretched their wings happily. They saw the smaller Pokémon looking at them with apprehension. They dropped down to ground level together and started to walk around, being friendly and showing that they weren't scary.

Ash and Brock went off with Melanie to make food for the Pokémon. Pikachu stayed behind, jumping off of his friend's shoulder.

" _Hey, Pikachu…"_

" _Hm? Yea, Bulbasaur?"_

" _Is Ash a nice trainer?"_

" _I wouldn't hesitate a second in saying he's the best! More importantly, he's my friend."_

" _Hey, what're you guys talking about~?"_ Butterfree asked, floating over to the two.

" _Bulbasaur was asking if Ash is nice to us,"_ Pikachu replied.

She started flittering up and down. " _Oh, daddy's just the best! He takes care of us and loves us and feeds us and trains us well and he talks to us and he treats us like family and-!_ "

" _Calm down, Butterfree. Well, I'm sure you get the gist of it. Just look at him now,"_ Pikachu said, pointing his tail at his trainer.

Bulbasaur turned to a heartwarming sight. Ash was sitting in the middle of the abandoned Pokémon, handing out dishes. The Oddish from earlier sat in his lap, Ash holding up a bowl for the little Pokémon. Caterpie, two Rattata, Weepinbell, and Paras were arranged around the trainer, eating the food happily and receiving head-rubs from him. Magikarp was within arms-reach and happily within the lake. Misty, Brock, and Melanie looked on with small smiles.

Pidgeotto and Fearow flew over, each carrying a box wrapped in cloth. They landed next to the little group and dropped their packages. Pikachu walked over and unwrapped the two items, revealing five little boxes of Pokéfood.

" _Ash asked us to deliver the food here, since you guys seemed to be having a nice little chat over here. They're labelled, by the way,"_ Pidgeotto said, opening his container with his beak and pecking at the food. " _Man, I'm really glad we're travelling with two good cooks. Melanie ain't half bad herself."_

The rest of Ash's Pokémon opened up their food boxes. Bulbasaur reached out with a vine and opened the container, letting a delicious aroma drift out. He picked a piece of the food and put it in his mouth to test. He blinked for a few seconds before he dug in vigorously.

The group enjoyed the break in the calm clearing, but soon decided to get going. It didn't feel particularly right to be staying in one place for a long time.

"So, I guess we'll be going now. It was nice meeting you, Melanie," Ash stated.

"Thank you for the supplies, Ash, but before you leave, I need to ask you something." He tilted his head. "Would you consider taking Bulbasaur with you on your journey?"

Bulbasaur looked at the young woman in shock. " _Melanie?"_

"Before you say anything else, Bulbasaur, let me explain," she said adamantly. "You've been a great help to me Bulbasaur and a great friend as well, but you still have a lot of growing left to do and I want you to be in a place where you can grow strong and happy. If Ash isn't the perfect person to bring you along, then I don't know who would be. The rest of the Pokémon, as well. They're comfortable, but maybe too comfortably with the situation. One day, they'll need to head back into the wild, maybe find a new trainer to travel along with, but they won't get any better if they rely on you to protect them."

" _I…I understand…Thank you, Melanie."_ Bulbasaur turned to Ash. " _If you'll have me, I'd love to come along, Ash. But, before that, I'd like to have a battle with you."_

Ash smiled. "Sure. Pikachu, you seemed to be getting along with him well. Welcome him to the family."

The two took their positions in the clearing, an eager grin on Pikachu's face. " _Why do I feel like I'm about to regret my condition?"_ Bulbasaur asked.

" _Oh, don't worry about it. Let's do it!"_

"Alright then. Pikachu, Quick Attack." Bulbasaur launched a cloud of sleep spores to cut off the attack. "Agility and Slam!"

The yellow mouse flickered away and behind Bulbasaur, smacking into him and knocking him through the air. He tumbled a few times, but recovered. He launched a few seeds from the bulb on his back, followed up by two vines to whack Pikachu.

The seeds landed both in front and behind Pikachu, rapidly growing and constricting the mouse Pokémon. "Iron Tail and deflect whichever vines you can, break free as quickly as you can."

Pikachu's glowing tail slapped away one of the incoming vines while the other freely slapped him. He gritted his teeth and broke free.

"Perfect. Now, Electro Ball!"

Pikachu sprinted free of his constrictions, evading another whip that slammed into the ground. He dashed around and charged the ball of energy, before jumping and flinging it with a high velocity at Bulbasaur. It came in too fast to dodge and it exploded in his face, knocking him out.

Ash tossed a Pokéball and caught Bulbasaur soundly, immediately sending him back out so he could treat his wounds. He held Bulbasaur in his arms gently as he applied some potion and medicine.

Melanie watched with a smile. _'I'm sure I made the right choice.'_

Ash and co. departed soon afterwards, continuing on their journey.

…..

" _Pikachu wasn't kidding when he said you had a harsh training regimen,"_ Bulbasaur groaned.

"It's not that hard..."

"…."

"Ok, fine, it is. But hey, it works! It's only the first couple of times that it really bothers you anyway, you'll get used to it."

" _Right…hey, do you think I'll be ready to evolve soon?"_ Bulbasaur asked excitedly.

"Hm…you need to rack up a bit more experience, but you should be close enough. Didn't you say you preferred the speed approach though?"

" _Well, I did, but realistically, I won't be able to get far if I do stay this way. I appreciate you giving me the choice, but I considered your words carefully. Even if I want to stay small and speedy, I'll only ever be able to go so fast, outclassed by Pikachu easily enough. To make use of my strengths, I need to evolve and bulk up to tank some hits. It's not like I'll be immobile anyway,"_ Bulbasaur said.

"Glad to hear it, Bulbasaur. Do you mind putting my hat back on my head?"

" _Hehehe, sorry."_ He retracted his vines back into his bulb, placing the hat back on Ash's head. " _Are you getting tired? I can walk if you need me to."_

"Nah, I'm fine. No better way to bond than carrying you along and chatting."

Misty and Brock watched the little conversation from behind. "It's really interesting to watch, isn't it?" Misty asked.

"It must be great, being able to know what your Pokémon are trying to say to you. I'm sure many trainers would be jealous of such an ability," Brock stated.

They continued watching for a few moments before they noticed something. "Wait a second, where's the egg?" Misty asked.

Ash caught the word egg in the question and registered the phrase. "Don't worry about it, Misty. I have it in an incubator that I bought in Cerulean City. It's in my backpack. I'll get back to carrying it myself when I put down Bulbasaur."

" _Oh, you have an egg with you, Ash? I shouldn't be taking up this space then."_ Bulbasaur jumped up and onto Ash's head. " _I can just cling on here. Do you mind taking out the egg? I want to see it!"_

"Sure. One moment," Ash stated. He bent down and placed his backpack on the ground gently. He opened a pouch and brought out a comfy-looking case with the silver and white egg sitting inside of it. He unlatched the opening and hugged it to himself, placing the case back into his pack. "Alright, let's get going."

" _Ah, my brother, you've joined me atop Ash's limbs!"_ __Pikachu said melodramatically.

Ash chuckled at the yellow mouse. After a few more minutes of walking, the group saw a black silhouette further along the road. As they came closer, they noticed that it was a rock spire with a small Pokémon crouched on of it.

"A Charmander? Those aren't naturally wild…wonder what it's doing there?"

Ash walked closer to the fire lizard. It lifted its head, looking at the approaching trainer warily. It was breathing raggedly.

"Hey, what're you doing up there?"

The Charmander looked at him curiously for a moment, then to the Pikachu and Bulbasaur on his body, before answering. " _I'm…waiting for my trainer…he told me to wait here and that he'd come back for me."_

"What did he say?" Brock asked.

"He said that he's waiting for his trainer to come back for him…I'm worried for it."

"It should be fine, Ash. If he said that his trainer was coming back, we should let him care for it."

Ash glanced at Charmander again. "Ok…here, at least let me leave some food for him. Hold the egg for me, will you?"

He climbed up to the lizard Pokémon with a basic Pokéfood mix with Oran Berries.

"Here you go, buddy. I hope your trainer comes back soon."

"… _Thank you."_

Ash nodded and climbed back down. He took back the egg, much to Brock's dismay, and Bulbasaur and Pikachu climbed back onto him. "Come on, let's go. I think we can take a break at the Pokémon Center that's nearby."

…..


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey guys, I brought the soup," Misty said, walking over to the table where they were seated and carrying a tray with three bowls on it. "Is something wrong, Ash?"

"…It's raining. I hope the Charmander from earlier got picked up by its trainer."

"I don't think it'd be waiting for that long, Ash. It must've been picked up by now," Brock responded.

"Man, Damien, you've got so many Pokémon!"

"Yea, it's a pretty nice collection," the blue-haired kid responded.

"Hey Damien, didn't you have a Charmander too?" Ash's ears twitched. He activated the recorder on his Pokégear.

"Yea, I had one, but that thing was so weak, it couldn't even beat the weakest opponents!" he shouted.

The other trainers in the Center popped veins at the kid's attitude. Misty vocalized it. "Man, that's one rotten brat."

"Any Pokémon can be great in the hands of a good trainer," Brock agreed.

"So what'd you do with that Charmander, Damien?"

"Eh, I left it on some rock in the middle of the woods. That thing is so stupid, no matter what I did to it, it kept coming back to me. I tricked the dumb thing by saying I'd come back for it. It's probably still waiting on that rock. Hahaha!"

"Hahaha, it's probably still up there, wagging its tail around!"

"Yea, it'll probably go out!" The group of kids laughed.

Bulbasaur growled in anger, but Ash was quicker on the draw. He stepped across the room briskly and lifted the kid bodily, holding him by the collar of his shirt. The others in the Center watched with interest.

"Hey, what's the big idea?!"

"You're a disgrace to Pokémon Trainers everywhere. A Charmander dies when the flame on its tail goes out and you left it in the rain!" Ash shouted in a rage.

He tossed Damien back onto the seat roughly. He held his hand out towards the blue-haired boy's Pokéballs. His eyes glowed blue and psychic energy surrounded the mass of Pokéballs, lifting them up. They shifted to Nurse Joy, following the motions of his hands.

"What're you-!"

"I'm reporting you to the Pokémon League and asking Nurse Joy to confiscate the rest of your Pokémon on the grounds of purposeful abandonment, mistreatment, and endangerment of one of your former Pokémon. I have a recording of you admitting to all of it with a laugh. Your trainer's license will be revoked." Nurse Joy nodded in agreement.

Ash grabbed his backpack and headed for the exit of the Pokémon Center.

"Hey Ash, where're you going?" Misty asked.

"I need to find Charmander and bring it back before it's too late. Misty, Brock, please stay here to help restrain that disgrace of a trainer if necessary and take care of my egg." The duo nodded. "Bulbasaur, Pikachu, hang on. We're going to travel fast."

The two Pokémon nodded and clung onto Ash. The last words they heard were 'Extreme Speed!' before they felt the wind and water whipping at their faces. In nearly no time at all, they were at the rock spire again. Three Spearow were flying above Charmander.

"Pikachu, Thundershock to scare them away. Bulbasaur, come on." Pikachu leaped forward and shot a controlled shock at the Spearow, forcing them away. He landed softly on Ash's head. Ash brought out a blanket to cover up the collapsed Pokémon.

" _He doesn't look good, Ash,"_ Pikachu said nervously.

"Bulbasaur, use your Vine Whip to grab Charmander and hold him up. Lucario!" The Aura Pokémon came out of his Pokéball. "It's an emergency. Help Bulbasaur with keeping Charmander up please." He nodded. "I'll keep his flame going. Charmander, hang in there!"

"Fire Punch." Ash's hands lit on fire and he held them closely to Charmander's tail flame. "Too bad Heal Pulse doesn't really work on physiological problems like this…" Ash quipped, flinching in pain. "Come on, we need to hurry."

…..

"Do you think he'll make it on time?" Misty asked anxiously.

"He'll make it. I know he will," Brock said, complete faith in the young trainer.

Moments later, the doors to the Center slid open and Ash ran in, his Pokémon dripping rain alongside him. "Nurse Joy, quickly!" She nodded and led Ash directly to an operating room.

"I'll take it from here, Ash. Good work."

Ash nodded grimly and waited outside as the operation room light flickered on. Brock and Misty joined him in waiting soon, handing him and his Pokémon towels to dry off. He did so carefully, minding his hands. Misty and Brock noticed.

The orange-haired girl gasped. "Ash, what happened to your hands?"

Bulbasaur looked at his trainer's hands for the first time as well, having been pre-occupied with carrying Charmander. Ash's hands were burnt, multiple spots pink rather than his normal skin tone. "Using a Fire-Type move like Fire Punch for a long duration of time can harm myself, yes. I needed to do it. My pain is nothing compared to what would've happened if I didn't."

"But-"

"Don't worry about it. I'll apply some salve and bandage myself. It should heal in no time," Ash said nonchalantly. Bulbasaur's respect for Ash just rose that much higher.

…..

"… _Ash, I'd like for you to send me back to Professor Oak's Lab._ "

Ash tilted his head. "Why's that?"

" _At the moment, I am too strong to be used in any challenges. Primarily, I'm just taking up space and I get the feeling you'll gain another family member soon. I'd like to return to the lab and help Professor Oak or Delia."_

Ash nodded in understanding. "I'll send you back first thing tomorrow."

Lucario nodded and returned to his Pokéball. Ash went back to sleep on the couch, waiting for Charmander to recuperate completely.

…..

"Ash! There's been trouble!" Ash woke up to Brock's cry. "Charmander vanished from his room."

"…He must have returned to the rock where Damien promised to meet him. Let me send-off Lucario quickly and we'll go look for Charmander."

…..

 _Thirty minutes ago…_

' _The guy with the hat sure was nice…I'll thank him if I see him again. And who saved me last night? I wish Damien was that nice…I hope he comes back soon.'_

Charmander climbed out of the window to his room and walked back towards the rock he was perched upon. His nose twitched.

' _Why do I smell blood? It smells familiar…'_

Charmander looked down. Mixed in with the water-soaked ground were traces of blood. He looked curiously at the ground and continued on to his destination.

…..

 _Back to normal time…_

"Charmander!" Ash called out when the rock came into view.

The little lizard raised its head to see Ash jogging towards it. It hopped off the rock and walked over to meet with Ash.

" _Hi! Thanks for the food…and helping me during the storm!"_ Charmander said happily.

"No problem, buddy…hey, how would you like to travel with me instead? Damien isn't coming back…"

Charmander lowered its head. " _…He abandoned me, didn't he? I hoped that if I stayed at that rock like he asked, he'd change his mind and take me back in…but I guess I wasn't worth it,"_ he said sadly.

"Don't say that Charmander! Damien was a bad trainer and he's not going to be a trainer for much longer…I think you'd be worth it, Charmander. You had the determination to stay on that rock even through the rain and the willpower to stay alive. I think you could become a really strong Pokémon," Ash stated, rubbing Charmander's head.

The lizard's nose twitched again. _'That smell…'_ " _What happened to your hands?"_ Charmander asked, only now noticing the bandages wrapped around parts of his hand.

"Oh, these? Don't worry about it. I just got a little injured last night…"

' _That smell…it's the blood from earlier today. Last night…'_

Charmander's memories came to mind as he closed his eyes to think. The rain starting to pour. Grabbing a leaf to keep his tail lit. The sound of some Spearow hovering above him. The sound of electricity…the last thing he heard before he passed out.

" _Charmander, hang in there!"_

His eyes snapped open, finally understanding. " _You got hurt saving me last night…"_

Ash just smiled softly at him. "Like I said, I think you're worth it. I'd love to have you as part of the family. Will you join?"

Charmander smiled and nodded eagerly.

"I don't think I've had the chance to properly introduce myself yet. I'm Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town. Welcome to the family."

Ash tossed a Pokéball at Charmander, who leaped to meet the ball happily. He disappeared into the ball and Ash caught the ball as it bounced back.

Bulbasaur hopped off of Ash's head. _"Ash, I'll go back into the Pokéball now."_

Ash nodded and returned Bulbasaur, calling out Charmander. He put the egg inside of the incubator and gestured for Charmander to sit in his arms.

"Alright, let's get going!" Ash said with a smile. Misty and Brock nodded with similar expressions, glad that the Charmander found a trainer that would take care of it.

…..

"Wait!" Ash called out. Misty and Brock were taking the lead this time around, but they halted as Ash called out.

"What's wrong Ash?" Brock asked.

"There's a pitfall a few feet in front of you."

" _What! How'd he see that?!"_ a voice shouted.

" _Quiet fool! They might hear us."_

"I can hear you. Stop hiding and get out here," Ash called out.

A bush rustled and five Squirtles jumped out. Four of the turtle Pokémon were wearing tinted circular glasses while the last one was wearing a cooler-looking set of shades.

" _We're the Squirtle Squad!"_

Pikachu and Charmander jumped down. " _What're you guys doing?! Stuff like that can be dangerous!"_ Charmander growled.

" _Hey, it was just a prank, we didn't mean anything by it,"_ the leader said nervously.

Ash walked closer to the gang. "Having a pitfall that deep can be dangerous. I can understand pranking, but there's a fine line between fun and danger. Would you be able to live with the death of an egg on your conscience?" he asked, gesturing at the egg in his arms.

Each Squirtle lowered their heads in shame. " _We…we're sorry."_

"Why are you guys acting like this? You have to have a reason, right?"

The leader looked at Ash uneasily for a few moments. Ash's genuinely concerned expression was enough to disarm him though. " _We…we were all abandoned by our trainers and treated badly…we were pranking people because of that."_

" _You really shouldn't be projecting your anger towards a few specific people onto all humans. Not all people are the same."_

" _I used to be abandoned too, but then I met Ash. He's the best!"_ Charmander added.

Ash smiled and bent down to pat Charmander on the head. "Thanks for backing me up you two."

The Squirtle Squad looked conflicted, but then a police siren came into earshot. The Squirtles dashed off. A few moments later, Officer Jenny arrived on her motorcycle.

"Are you guys alright? Is anybody hurt?" she asked.

"Yes, we're fine Officer Jenny. Why're you here?"

"I received reports that the Squirtle Squad were hanging around here and I wanted to make sure nobody got hurt. It's a shame that they act like this just because they never received any care from their former trainers."

An explosion sounded out from nearby. "What was that?" Brock shouted.

"Oh no! That came from the town!" Officer Jenny shouted. She got back onto her motorcycle and drove off. A column of smoke was rising from that direction.

"Misty, Ash, we need to go help them!"

They both nodded and the trio started to run to the town. "I'll go on ahead," Ash called out, channeling Aura for an ability.

Pikachu and Charmander both hung on tightly as Ash flickered and sprinted away.

…..

"So, what's so special about these Squirtle anyway?"

"The boss said that having five starter Pokémon available in our forces would be a great benefit. So, we're baiting them out. Houndour, Flamethrower!"

People screamed and ran as the fire dog set their stalls on fire.

"Hey, what are you doing!?" Officer Jenny shouted. "Growlithe, go!"

"Hmph, really? Primeape, Dynamic Punch!"

The monkey-like Pokémon jumped out of the shadows and slammed his fist into the smaller Fire-Type, knocking it out and back towards Officer Jenny.

"Growlithe!"

Primeape and Houndour walked menacingly towards Officer Jenny. She stepped back as the two Pokémon lunged. Suddenly, they were both knocked back by five Water Guns side-by-side, landing back with a growl.

Officer Jenny turned to see the Squirtle Squad standing there. "You guys? What're you doing here?"

The leader put a hand to his chest confidently and pointed at the criminal duo.

"Oh, look at this. The prankster gang came back to help out the town. Well, isn't that just beautiful?" the woman mocked. "Raticate, Skull Bash! Houndour, Smog!"

"Primeape, Dynamic Punch!"

The dark hound Pokémon blew black smoke into the Squirtle Squad. The Raticate and Primeape aimed for the leader of the Squirtle Squad and moved too quickly for him to dodge. He closed his eyes and readied himself for the pain.

A resounding thwack sounded out. Squirtle held his hands on his head, expecting the pain to register at any moment. But it never came. "Pidgeotto, Whirlwind to clear the smog. Fearow, Aerial Ace! Pikachu, Iron Tail, Charmander, Metal Claw, Bulbasaur, Razor Leaf!"

The smog instantly cleared. Fearow dove in, slamming into the Primeape whose fist was planted into Ash's stomach. Pikachu and Charmander slammed their attacks into Raticate, knocking it back and colliding it with Primeape. Bulbasaur's Razor Leaf shredded and knocked the two Pokémon further back and in front of their trainers.

Ash registered the Team Rocket uniforms, a man with green hair, and a woman with blonde hair.

The Squirtle Squad were blinking in confusion. In the instant that the smoke cleared, they saw Ash blocking Raticate's Skull Bash with both of his own glowing hands. He'd taken the hit for them.

"Team Rocket? What're you up to?"

"Ha, as if we have anything to say to a brat like you!" Cassidy laughed.

Primeape and Raticate rose back up. They growled fiercely at the opposing trainer.

"We need to take them out and boot them out of here. Charmander, Bulbasaur, you're up. Fearow, Pidgeotto, look around for anyone that might be trapped and help them out. Squirtle!" Ash locked eyes with the leader of the gang. "You want to help out?"

He nodded vigorously, along with the rest of his gang. "You four, go around and start dousing the flames. Pikachu, go find Brock and Misty with Officer Jenny and help with getting rid of the flames. Leader, you're with me. We're going to boot these thugs out of here."

Each of the Pokémon set off to their own tasks as Pikachu led Officer Jenny away with her injured Growlithe. Houndour moved to pursue, but Squirtle cut it off.

"Grrrr…..pesky brat!" the male shouted. "Primeape, use Dynamic Punch!"

"Charmander, Smokescreen and Dig!"

The lizard shot a large cloud of smoke into Primeape's face, startling it, and then dug into the ground.

"Raticate, Houndour, get moving! Super Fang and Flamethrower!"

"Squirtle, Water Gun to counter! Bulbasaur, keep Raticate back with Vine Whip!"

Steam hissed as Squirtle vigorously shot a strong stream of water into the Flamethrower, holding even with it. Bulbasaur snapped his vines at Raticate, knocking it off balance and slapping it repeatedly. Suddenly, he grabbed the rat.

"Charmander, now!"

While Primeape was distracted, he shot out of the ground and into the larger monkey's stomach. "Flamethrower!"

Charmander unleashed a stream of fire point-blank into the monkey's stomach, knocking it out from the pain and throwing it back into the Rocket duo.

"Nice job! Don't slack off you two! Bulbasaur, Take Down! Squirtle, dive to the side and Water Gun!"

Bulbasaur finished reeling in Raticate and slammed into the rat roughly. It skidded across the floor and met with the in-motion Primeape.

Squirtle followed Ash's instructions instinctively and dropped, the Flamethrower continuing past his previous location. He shot a Water Gun into Houndour's side, making it yelp in pain.

"Now, Rapid Spin!"

Squirtle retracted into his shell and began spinning quickly, sliding and slamming into Houndour. The dark Pokémon yelped again, flying through the air and colliding with the other two Pokémon as they landed simultaneously.

Bulbasaur and Charmander began to glow white. Their sizes and shapes shifted as they evolved.

" _Awesome, we evolved!"_ Ivysaur shouted happily.

" _Wow, I evolved already? I've only been traveling with you guys for three days!"_ Charmeleon said in surprise.

" _Ash is just an awesome trainer!"_

" _Yea, he sure is! I never would've evolved this fast with Damien,"_ he agreed.

Squirtle looked at the other two in awe. ' _Wow…could I get that strong?_ '

Ash smiled, excited that his two friends evolved. "Awesome! Now, Ivysaur, Leech Seed and Sleep Powder on them."

The vines grew up out of the seeds and bound the criminals along with their Pokémon, before getting put to sleep with the green powder.

"Nice work guys!" Ash said, bending down. Charmeleon and Ivysaur ran over to Ash happily, nuzzling their trainer affectionately.

Squirtle walked over to Ash. " _Thanks for taking the hit for me earlier…I didn't think anyone would go that far for me."_

Ash just smiled at him. "No problem at all. I'd do it again any day," Ash replied. "Come on, let's go check up on our friends."

He walked over to the bundle of villains and dragged them along, leading the way to find their companions.

…..

"Onix, Geodude, Sand Attack!"

"Staryu, Starmie, Water Gun!"

Pikachu, Fearow, and Pidgeotto ferried buckets of water onto the flames, while Butterfree pulled over buckets with her psychic powers.

The Squirtle Squad were hard at work, jumping all over the place and putting out fires. Soon enough, all of the fires were put out.

Brock helped treat Officer Jenny's Growlithe while Misty handed out bandages to some people that were slightly wounded.

"Thanks Squirtle Squad! You really saved us there!" one of the townspeople shouted.

"Those two trainers helped us out a lot too and the trainer of those four Pokémon helped out a lot too! Thank you!" a few others shouted.

Brock and Misty turned humble under all of the praise.

"Hehehe, it wasn't that big of a deal," Misty said nervously.

"We were just doing what anybody would do in our places," Brock explained.

"Oy, Brock, Misty! We're back!" Ash called out, dragging the two Team Rocket members behind him. They looked at two of the Pokémon walking alongside him in surprise.

"Hey Ash! Charmander and Bulbasaur both evolved?" Misty asked in amazement.

"Yea! They can take even more training now!" Ash said happily.

Both of the evolved Pokémon's moods suddenly dropped and they whimpered. Pikachu walked over to them and placed a comforting hand on their shoulders.

" _It's ok, my brothers…you will survive the torture and grow stronger. I believe in you two…"_

The two Pokémon started crying comical streams of tears into Pikachu's shoulders.

Ash sweat dropped at their behavior. "Oh come on, I'm not that bad, am I?"

Each of his Pokémon turned to face him, except Butterfree. " _Yes, you are,"_ they all deadpanned.

He dropped to the ground melodramatically in shock. He bent down, arms crossed over his legs and back hunched. He started poking his finger around on the ground.

"B-b-but, I just want to help you guys get stronger…it's not like I don't treat you guys well…" Ash said sadly.

Butterfree flew up angrily. " _Hey, don't bully daddy!"_

The Squirtle Squad started laughing at the scene, their leader smiling. _'Man, it feels like it'd be fun with those guys…'_

The other Squirtle Squad members saw the expression on their leader's face and huddled together to talk.

" _Hey, boss!"_

He turned around.

" _Yea?"_

" _If you really wanna go with 'em, you can go with 'em, boss. We don't mind."_

" _Yea, do what your heart tells you to do, boss. Don't need to worry about us!"_

" _Officer Jenny asked us to be the official firefighters here, so it's not like we'll have nothing to do without you!"_

" _So we understand if you wanna go out and see the world, boss!"_

The leader looked at his friends with thankful and cloudy eyes. " _Thanks guys, you're the best! I think I'll ask to go with 'em…they seem like a fun gang to be traveling around with."_

The five Squirtle huddled together in a group hug.

Charmeleon and Ivysaur snapped from their little act, knowing full well that Ash wouldn't do anything bad to them. Butterfree noticed the small pain that Ash was feeling and started fussing over him. He waved it off, but appreciated the concern. Squirtle walked over to the sitting trainer.

Ash waited for him to speak, as he obviously had something to say. " _…Ash, can I come with you guys on your journey?"_

Ash tilted his head. "You want to come with me? What about the Squirtle Squad?"

" _The guys said they'd understand if I wanted to join you and I do. So, what do you say?"_

Ash smiled. "Gladly. Welcome to the family, Squirtle."

The Squirtle cheered and took off his glasses. His eyes were shimmering with excitement and he jumped into Ash's arms for a hug.

"Man, Ash really has a knack for having good Pokémon," Misty commented.

"A great trainer deserves great Pokémon, after all," Brock stated. Misty nodded in agreement.

" _Ash, I would like to return to the Pokémon Ranch. You need space for Squirtle, don't you?"_ Fearow asked.

"Are you sure, Fearow?" She nodded.

Pidgeotto looked dejected. " _Aw, do you need to go already?"_

" _Well, somebody needs to make our nest…"_ Fearow said shyly, blushing furiously.

Pidgeotto went silent in shock. A hand clapped him on the shoulder. Ash nodded his head slowly, tears of pride running down his face.

"You've grown, Pidgeotto. It seems like it was only yesterday that you were a young one, but now I see that you're a healthy adult."

Pidgeotto sputtered and the rest of the Pokémon burst out laughing. Ash just smirked at the scene.

"Sorry about this Squirtle, but just wait around a bit. I'll need to transfer Fearow back to the ranch before I can catch you."

" _No problem Ash!"_

…..


	8. Chapter 8

"Why are we up here, Ash? We're in the opposite direction of Vermilion City…" Misty asked.

"Professor Oak asked me to stop by on Bill and make sure he wasn't going too crazy on his research. That's where we're heading. Besides, we have plenty of time to collect badges for the Indigo League."

"Well, whatever…"

"Hey Ash?"

"Yea, Brock?"

"I'm curious. Why do you not catch as many Pokémon as other trainers do? Most trainers would have 20 or 30 at this point in the journey."

Ash tilted his head. "Well, I personally prefer to have a small group of Pokémon that I personally watch over myself. Catching a lot of Pokémon would require me to divide my time among all of them equally, which is something I'm not sure I could do at the moment…"

Misty thought about it for a moment. "What if you don't have to?" she said, a light bulb lighting above her head.

"What do you mean?"

"Have your other Pokémon help you train the Pokémon you have at the ranch. That way you have a large variety of Pokémon that you can use. I'm sure Professor Oak would appreciate having them available to study."

"Hm…Lucario would probably enjoy having something to do. That should actually work pretty well. Thanks, Misty!"

…..

When the group reached the area that Bill's lighthouse was around, Ash caught a rather large Krabby, which was sent off immediately back to the Ranch. He established a mental link with Lucario and discussed the idea with him. The Aura Pokémon thought it was a good plan.

Immediately following the phone call, he Teleported back to the Ranch. Using a connection of Aura, he gave Lucario access to his memories to gain the knowledge that he had on Pokémon. Though, of course, his memories of his past life were sealed by Arceus herself.

Ash returned to Misty and Brock quickly, heading over to the lighthouse to meet Bill. He pressed the doorbell device.

" _Hello, who is it?"_

"Hey Bill, it's me, Ash."

" _Oh, Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town? That young boy that was very enthusiastic about the study of Pokémon?"_

"Yes, the very same."

" _Oh, how wonderful it is to see you again! Come on in!"_

The giant stone door opened slowly, allowing the group to go inside.

"I should probably call Professor Oak and tell him that we're here," Ash murmured.

He dialed in the number on his Pokégear and waited for the Professor to pick up.

" _Oh, hello Ash! How is your journey?"_

"I'm at Bill's Lighthouse now. Did Krabby make it over safely?"

" _He made it over perfectly fine! Lucario led it off to train, apparently. Was that orchestrated by you?"_

"Yes, I took the advice of Brock and Misty and decided to have Lucario train my Pokémon at the Ranch."

" _Oh, that's great, Ash! Does that mean you'll be catching more Pokémon now?"_

"Maybe, maybe not. How're Jessie, James, and Meowth doing?"

" _Oh, they're performing perfectly! Jessie and James were quick learners and are great when they set their minds on doing something. Meowth is being very helpful in my communication to the Pokémon. Thank you for sending them!"_

"No problem, Professor, I'm glad they're doing well. I'll be going now, I still haven't found Bill quite yet."

" _Goodbye Ash! Good luck on your journey!"_

"Goodbye, Professor." Ash closed his Pokégear and turned back to his two companions. "Alright, let's get going. I'm guessing that Bill got himself trapped doing something."

After a bit more exploring, Ash and co. found a giant Kabuto sitting in a room.

"Bill, is that you?"

" _Ash!"_ a voice shouted from inside. " _Yes, it is me. Would please tap the button on the bottom right section of the abdomen?"_

Ash complied and pushed the button. It blinked blue a few times and some light escaped from the inside of the shell as it unlatched. The arms detached and human arms popped out. Eventually, Bill worked his way out of the costume.

"Ah, thank Arceus. I was trapped in there for a solid few hours. Ah, Ash, it has been a long time. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, Bill. I'm on my journey as a trainer now. These are my friends Misty, a former gym leader of Cerulean City, and Brock, the former Pewter City gym leader."

"Ah, you are a trainer now? What a shame, I was hoping that you would pursue the path of a Pokémon researcher. Regardless, since you are a trainer, I have a device that you might appreciate. Follow me," Bill gestured, walking out of the room.

"Hey Ash, who is Bill?" Misty whispered.

"Bill is the one who developed the Pokémon Storage System and a rather renowned Pokémon Researcher," Ash answered.

"…"

"What?"

"A beginner trainer who is on good terms with Professor Oak and somebody like Bill…you're pretty lucky, aren't you?"

"I guess so."

"We're here!" Bill exclaimed.

They stopped inside what appeared to be Bill's lab. He walked over to a table and picked up a small device. It was rather simple-looking device, just large enough to insert a Pokéball into. He could tell that there was a lot packed into the small thing.

"What is that?"

"This, Ash, is a portable Pokémon transfer machine!"

Ash raised an eyebrow. "That's a very valuable piece of equipment then…"

"Yes, and it's the only one currently! I'd like for you to have it," Bill stated.

"Why me, of all the trainers you could give it to?"

"Other trainers were not the ones who rescued me from a misunderstanding Rapidash, Ash. And other trainers have not displayed to me their pure intentions towards Pokémon and determination in becoming a Pokémon Master. Now, take my gift, Ash. I will not take no for an answer."

Ash sighed, but smiled thankfully at Bill. The group took a short break in the lighthouse, cooking a meal to eat together, before departing. This time, they were actually heading to Vermilion City.

…..

 **A/N: Not sure if you particularly noticed it yet, but I'm not exactly following the level regulation of when moves are learned by Pokémon. It'll just be whatever, really. Reasonable, of course. I'm not giving Ivysaur Petal Blizzard or crazy stuff like that. Of course, TM moves will just be whenever, just as they are in the games. And I think I'll be allowing Egg moves to be teachable.**

The group made it to Vermilion City soon enough, in under half a week. They stopped by the Pokémon Center first, just to make sure that his Pokémon were fine. Ivysaur, Squirtle, and Charmeleon were all walking alongside him, talking to Pikachu, who was, as always, on Ash's shoulder. The four Pokémon had come together splendidly after Squirtle joined the team. They were constant sparring partners for each other, helping each other train to resist their own weakness and for combat ability in general.

"My, your Pokémon are all unbelievably healthy! You must take very good care of them constantly for them to be in such good condition!" Nurse Joy said.

"Ah, thank you. Yes, I try my best to take good care of them."

"Hurry!" they heard a kid shouted nervously. "You'll be ok, Rattata! Hurry!"

Ash turned to see a rather burnt mouse Pokémon being wheeled past by a Chansey on a stretcher.

"Oh dear, that's the fifteenth one this month…" Nurse Joy said sadly.

She followed the stretcher into a back room. Misty, Brock, and Ash followed as well, curious to learn more.

They came into a room with multiple children nursing Pokémon all with similar wounds.

"What happened to them?" Ash asked in concern.

"Lieutenant Surge, the gym leader of Vermilion City. He always overdoes it when he battles trainers and the more un-experienced ones always end up with their Pokémon like this."

Ash clicked his teeth. "He doesn't seem like the kind of guy I'd like…I'm going to go challenge the gym now. Regardless of what he's trying to prove, there shouldn't be a need to injure them this much."

"Anybody who goes this far in a battle is just being a bully," Misty agreed.

"A gym leader should show more control than this," Brock stated in agreement.

"Lieutenant Surge, the leader of the Vermilion City Gym. He uses Electric-Type Pokémon. You ready to go, Pikachu?"

" _Of course I am!"_ Pikachu said with spirit.

"Good. Let's go."

…..

Ash entered the gym and found two other trainers standing in the front.

"What do you want, kid?" the guy wearing biker clothes asked.

"I'm here to challenge Lieutenant Surge for the Thunder Badge," Ash replied.

The woman and man both smirked. "Hey boss, there's another victim for the emergency room here for ya," the guy called back.

"Which one?" a voice called out from the back. Lieutenant Surge stepped out from the shadows. He was wearing an open coat and a necklace.

"I'm the challenger," Ash said, unwavering.

Lt. Surge chuckled. "Okay baby, I'll take your challenge." He glanced at Pikachu on Ash's shoulder. "Ha, a baby bringing along a baby Pokémon!" He started laughing along with his two lackeys.

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Well, I guess I know why the other people got their Pokémon hurt. It's hard for a gorilla to control their Pokémon's power when they lack to brains to do so."

Lt. Surge went silent for a moment, glaring at Ash. Ash stood still, arms crossed and bored expression on his face. Then Lt. Surge smirked again. "Hah! I like your spunk, kid. Let's see if your bite meets your bark. Come on."

The tall gym leader led the group into another room. Surge walked to the other side of the room. "Go, Pokéball!"

A white silhouette popped out of the ball. A Raichu. Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and faced the larger Pokémon. It looked condescendingly down on its pre-evolution.

"Surge, how many Pokémon do you have on you right now?"

"Two, why?"

"I want to challenge you to a two-on-two battle. If I win, I'd like for you to stop purposefully injuring the Pokémon of younger Pokémon."

Lt. Surge laughed. "Ha, I don't have anything I need to promise you…but I'll consider it if you beat me. I'll have you know that I do it with a purpose though."

Ash nodded. "That's fine." He called out the rest of his Pokémon to watch. "Let's get started."

"Alright Raichu, let's show them our power with a Thunderbolt!" Surge shouted, raising his fist.

The powerful lightning attack jetted from Raichu and slammed into Pikachu. To no effect. Surge and Raichu both looked thoroughly confused.

"Pikachu has the Lightning Rod ability. Any electric moves you use on him will just power him up more. Pikachu, Electro Ball!"

"What?" Surge exclaimed. That was an advanced move.

The ball of electricity slammed into Raichu and exploded, knocking it back. It grunted in pain.

"Fine, if we can't use electricity, we'll just overpower you! Raichu, Mega Punch!"

The Pokémon charged at Pikachu with a glowing fist, but it was easily evaded by the smaller, more nimble Pokémon.

"And this is a major weakness of yours. A nimble Pokémon and a strong trainer should be able to run circles around you. Let's humor you, however. Pikachu, Iron Tail with Agility!"

Surge smirked. "Big mistake, baby! Raichu, Mega Kick!"

The two electric mouse Pokémon charged at each other, glowing limbs at the ready, and they collided. A mini-dust cloud erupted upon contact and a half-second later, Raichu came flying out of the cloud and landed on its feet. It was panting heavily.

" _Holy Arceus, how are you that strong?!"_ Raichu shouted.

Pikachu landed on the ground at the point of collision. " _Lots of training."_

"Alright Pikachu, let's end this. Double Team and Iron Tail!" Ash shouted. He followed up with a whisper. "Dig."

Multiple copies of Pikachu appeared, readying Iron Tails to strike at Raichu.

"Raichu, Thunderbolt and get rid of those copies!"

Lightning streaked over the field, phasing through all of the clones. None remained. Surge was confused.

"Where did he go…? Damn it! Raichu, move!"

"Too late."

Pikachu emerged from the ground, slamming his head into Raichu's stomach and whipping him to the ground with a quick Iron Tail. It collapsed with swirls in its eyes.

Surge clicked his teeth in annoyance. "Return, Raichu!" There wasn't anything he could say. Ash had won with tactics, but apparent strength. "Magneton, it's your turn!"

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Magneton? That makes sense, I guess. Squirtle, you're up!"

The Water-Type looked at his trainer in surprise.

" _I-It's my turn? Alright! Let's do it!"_ he shouted, pumping his fist.

" _Go get 'em, Squirtle!"_ Charmeleon cheered.

" _You can do it!"_ Ivysaur shouted.

Pikachu tagged out with Squirtle and the Turtle Pokémon took his place. Misty looked worried.

"Is he sure about this? I know Ash has done it before, but this seems dangerous."

"Technically, Squirtle will be able to do a good amount of damage with Water-Type attacks, as they're normally effective against the Steel/Electric-Type. I think Ash can do it," Brock analyzed.

"Squirtle, open up with a Water Pulse!"

"Magneton, Thunderbolt!"

The electric attack sliced through the orb of water. It splashed onto the floor.

"Protect!"

"Thunderbolt again, Magneton!"

"Jump up and Water Gun, Squirtle. Angle it at the puddle!"

The spectators were confused by the orders, but Squirtle followed diligently. He shot the stream of water directly into the puddle, propelling himself diagonally and into the air. The Thunderbolt inched closer to the stream of water.

"Close your mouth, Squirtle. Cut off the water!" Ash shouted as the Thunderbolt was an inch away from the stream. "Rapid Spin on Magneton!"

The electricity ran into the stream of water and disappeared, channeling itself through the stream of water and into the puddle. The Magneton buzzed in annoyance as Squirtle bumped into the Pokémon.

Surge smirked. "Magneton, Take Down!" he shouted.

"Withdraw and Iron Defense." A blue outline appeared around Squirtle as he retracted into his shell. The attack did little to no damage. "Point-blank Water Pulse!"

The globule of water shot violently from Squirtle's mouth, knocking it back and onto the ground in a daze. "Finish with Aqua Tail!"

Water shrouded his tail and he slammed it into the Magneton, slamming it into the ground further. When the smoke cleared, swirls were in its three eyes.

"Great job, Squirtle!"

"… _I did it!"_ he cheered happily. A white light enveloped him as he began to evolve.

Charmeleon, Ivysaur, and Pikachu smiled, happy that their friend was evolving. " _Congratulations Squirtle!"_ they cheered.

Wartortle emerged from the light, hands raised triumphantly. " _Alright!"_

Lt. Surge sighed in defeat. "Hmph, well you beat me fair and square. Here," he said, tossing a token at Ash, "the Thunder Badge."

"Thank you. Will you consider my request?"

"Right. Well, it's not like I do it without a reason…I'm trying to teach the kiddies that the world of Pokémon's a hard place. If they move onto the harder gym leaders, their Pokémon will get hurt a lot more than what I do to them."

"I can understand your intent, Lt. Surge, but you can get the same message across without seriously injuring them like you have. Just intimidate them, get your message across. It shouldn't take that much to do it to younger trainers and you can use your power for the more arrogant, older ones. It's simple."

"Hmph…well, I'll think about it."

Ash nodded. "Well, I think we're done here. Goodbye, Lt. Surge."

"Heh, good luck on your journey, kid. You'll go far, I can tell."

The group left, Butterfree and Pidgeotto returning to their Pokéballs. The starters stayed out to talk with Wartortle, chatting about evolution.

"So, where're heading next, Ash?" Brock asked.

"Well, I'd like to go to Saffron City gym next. The rumors I've heard have personally interested me in there…but it might be nice to take a break first," Ash stated. He reached around into his pack and pulled out three tickets. "Right before we left, Bill gave me some tickets for the S.S Anne, which is a cruise on its way to Porta Vista. I thought it might be a nice place to take a little break."

Misty clasped her hands together and her eyes started glittering. "A cruise out in the ocean? And a beachside town? That sounds wonderful!"

"Sounds perfect! I wonder if there will be any attractive ladies on-board…" Brock said, expression wandering and drooling slightly.

Ash palmed his face. "Snap out of it, Brock. Come on, let's get going. We wouldn't want to miss the ship."

…..

The cruise was rather relaxing. The group took the chance to hang back and rest. Ash told Lucario to take a break at the Ranch and everybody took their time to have fun.

Charmeleon, Wartortle, Ivysaur, and Pikachu ran around, drawing the attention and interest of many people on-board.

Butterfree just spent time with her favorite trainer while Pidgeotto basked in the feeling of the ocean air. They had fun.

When they eventually arrived in Porta Vista, they played on the beach, swapping into their swimsuits.

"Hm, you should try this, Misty. I think you'd do well," Ash said, handing over the piece of paper.

She grabbed it. "What's this? Beach Beauty and Pokémon Costume Contest?" She blushed. "You really think I would do well in this?"

"Of course you would! You're really pretty Misty," Ash replied with a reassuring smile.

Misty smiled brightly. "Thanks Ash. I think I'll take a shot at it."

…..

 **A/N: Right, not sure if I clarified it or it was obvious enough, but rather than the "We don't know about the other region" approach that the first season of Pokémon takes in the show, knowledge is traveling around from the other regions. While it may not all be communicated in between, there won't be as much unknown as there would technically be otherwise.**

Ash watched the contest in the stands alone, holding his egg. He heard a voice call out.

"Ash, dear!"

He turned and found his face planted into somebody's chest.

"Hi mom! You can stop strangling me now!"

Delia released her son from her motherly embrace, giggling.

"I'm sorry dear, it's just been so long since I've seen you! Professor Oak is also here," she said, moving aside to show the smiling and waving Professor.

"Hello, Ash! It's great to see you," the Professor greeted. He noticed what Ash was holding. "Is that a Pokémon egg?"

"Yea, it is. Why?"

"It seems to be a rather unique egg," he hummed.

"It might be, but you're not touching it!" Ash said protectively. "Anyway, what're you guys doing here?"

"We came with our tour group, the Pallet Town Volunteer Patrol," Delia responded. "Why are you watching the contest?"

"My friend Misty is in the contest. Brock and I came to support her and watch. Brock got reeled into announcing for the event, so I'm just here watching."

"Oh, really? Gary actually entered the contest as well, with his little entourage of fans," Professor Oak said off-handedly.

Ash sighed. "Well, this might turn annoying."

He returned his attention to the contest.

Misty strolled down the walkway with a cute red swimsuit on. She blushed nervously as Brock introduced her to the audience and she found Ash in the audience. He smiled and waved at his friend. She relaxed from his gesture alone and continued with her performance.

Charmeleon, Ivysaur, Wartortle, Starmie, and Staryu came onto the stage. Staryu and Starmie shot Water Guns, frozen by Wartortle's Ice Beam as it spurted. The basis of a sculpture formed, a platform and shape upon it created.

Charmeleon and Ivysaur got to work with carving the sculpture carefully, wanted image burned into their minds. Charmeleon made liberal use of his flames to melt off chunks of ice at a time, Ivysaur whipping curves onto the ice sculpture.

" _This is an amazing performance, ladies and gentlemen! While slightly unorthodox in terms of this contest, it's gorgeous nonetheless! And it seems they've finished it! It's a beautiful sculpture of Articuno, the Legendary Bird of Ice!"_ Brock announced fervently.

The audience clapped fervently and cheered, impressed by the display of skill. Misty bowed and walked back into the waiting area. The sculpture of Articuno was taken by the town committee, having asked for permission to keep it for as long it lasted.

The next 'performance' barged right onto the stage without much introduction. Gary Oak.

" _Here is a surprise appearance by Gary Oak, an up-and-coming Pokémon trainer, accompanied by a squad of his adorable fans!"_

Ash sweat dropped. Gary put the mic to his mouth.

"Ash, I know you're out there somewhere! But I didn't come here just to make you jealous of me!" he said through the microphone. "I came here so my fans could make you jealous of me!"

"Right, good luck with that Gary."

Gary looked around in confusion as the voice came out of seemingly nowhere.

"Get out here in the open, Ash!"

"You realize that I'm standing right next to you…" Ash said, suddenly appearing on the stage. Gary jumped backwards in shock. Gary's bikini-wearing cheerleaders glanced between the two boys.

" _It seems that the one that Gary Oak called out has appeared on the stage undetected! Ash Ketchum, another up-and-coming Pokémon trainer from Pallet Town!"_ Brock announced.

"Hmph, there you are Ash. Did you see those messages I left you?" Gary sneered.

"What, like the one you left at Mt. Moon? You really need to grow up Gary. I'm sure you could be a good trainer and good guy, but you're so immature sometimes," Ash responded.

Gary fumed and stomped the ground, pointing his arm at Ash.

"I challenge you to a Pokémon battle! I'll prove that I'm better than you once-and-for all!"

Some murmuring and dialogue by Brock later, they relocated to the beach, the audience from the contest following along.

"Alright, Arcanine, I choose you!" Gary shouted.

"Wartortle, battle ready!"

Ash's Pokémon relocated to behind him, Pidgeotto and Butterfree still in their Pokéballs. Wartortle moved to face Arcanine.

"Arcanine, Take Down!"

"Wartortle, Aqua Tail!"

Arcanine dashed towards Wartortle quickly, but not quickly enough. Wartortle jumped up and slammed the attack into Arcanine's face.

"Arcanine, Bite!"

"Withdraw!" Arcanine clamped his jaws right onto Wartortle's shell. "Rapid Spin!"

Arcanine widened his eyes, but before he could let go, his mouth erupted in pain and he was knocked back.

"Finish with Water Pulse!"

The orb of water slammed into Arcanine's side. He was knocked out.

"I'll swap first, Gary. Wartortle, come back. Charmeleon, your turn." The turtle Pokémon tapped out with its friend. "Good job Wartortle."

Gary smirked. "Ha, that was a bad choice, Ashy-boy. Go, Wartortle!"

His own turtle came out from the Pokéball. Ash and Charmeleon grinned to themselves.

"What're you smilin' at?" Gary asked.

"Oh, nothing, don't worry about it. I'll make the first move then. Charmeleon, Slash!"

"Wartortle, Withdraw. Then, Water Gun!"

"Charmeleon, disperse it with Swords Dance."

Wanting to find an easier way to just deflect projectile moves, Ash spent some time practicing with Charmeleon and Wartortle to do so. Swords Dance seemed to work well enough in their experimenting.

"Hm, can deflect physical attacks well enough and fire won't work very well. Charmeleon, Dragon Pulse!"

Gary gaped. Charmeleon opened his maw and a turquoise ball of energy shot from his mouth. "Wartortle, Water Pulse!"

The turtle futilely attempted to deflect the attack, only to have the ball of water ripped through by Charmeleon's move. Wartortle was promptly knocked out.

"Nice job, Ash!" Misty cheered.

"Hm…he was able to teach Charmeleon Dragon Pulse. That takes a great amount of effort and practice on the Pokémon's part and understanding and knowledge on the trainer," Professor Oak commented.

Before the two trainers could proceed with their match, Ash turned out to the ocean.

"What is that?" he said, squinting his eyes.

Everybody else looked out to see a small figure approaching the beach rapidly.

"I think that's a Horsea! Aw, it's so cute!" Misty gushed.

"…It also has a pod of Tentacool chasing it. They look pretty mad."

The audience screamed and ran off the beach in fear of the raging Pokémon. Gary backed off with his cheerleaders. Professor Oak and Delia Ketchum were also safely back on the street.

"Where's Ash?" Delia asked in concern.

"It appears that young Ash is still on the beach," Professor Oak said, pointing at the boy facing the incoming Pokémon.

…..

"Um, Ash, why are we still here?" Misty asked nervously. She liked Water Pokémon, but enraged ones were scary nonetheless.

"Well, they're obviously mad about something. If we don't do something about it, they'll just attack the town. Besides, I was thinking about catching a Tentacool," Ash answered with excitement.

"Oh, it looks like those Tentacool are trying to stop my business again!" a shrill voice shouted from the shore side.

Ash turned to see an old and short woman with wrinkly skin and ponytails. "What're you talking about?" he called back.

The woman crossed her arms. "My name is Nastina and I'm trying to build a resort for where tourists can relax and look at the coral reefs! Those Tentacool keep attacking the construction and scaring away my workers!"

The crowd murmured. "How horrible…" "Those are some evil Pokémon!"

Ash narrowed his eyes at the woman. She recoiled at the glare. "You're not telling all there is to it. Most Pokémon don't naturally attack humans unless they get disturbed in some way. Tell us the truth!" he shouted, eyes glowing with psychic energy.

Nastina yelped and shrunk back under his glare. "I-I may or may not have destroyed a few of their homes during my construction," she said nervously.

The entire crowd turned as one to glare at her. Ash palmed his face in frustration. "And this is why some Pokémon hate humans. Because of people like you."

The Tentacool came ever closer to the beach. Ash's Pokémon lined up on the beach against them. They stopped. A single Tentacool came forward.

" _Get out of our way. Humans have desecrated our home and we must have retribution."_

"Tentacool, we are sorry for what one of our own have done to you and your species. We understand that we've hurt you. We've captured the one responsible for destroying your homes and we'll punish her harshly."

Ash gestured for Misty to speak as well.

"We're really sorry, Tentacool. Please, we won't destroy you homes any more. We didn't know what was happening before. So, please don't take out your anger on the innocents," Misty pleaded. "You're all beautiful Pokémon, please don't mar your image because of that vicious and cruel woman."

Tentacool stared at the two humans facing him. He could see easily enough that the lined-up Pokémon had full trust in their trainer as well. He turned away.

" _Fine…I will leave the town alone. If this ever happens again, however, we will not hold back our fury."_

Ash nodded and Misty sighed in relief. The Tentacool departed, leaving the Horsea alone in the sea. Ash turned around to face his mother, her hands on her hips and an angry expression on her face.

…..

After a thorough scolding and a few hugs of worry from his mom, Ash and Misty were thanked thoroughly for fending off the Tentacool attack. The Horsea from earlier even joined Misty after she had nursed it back to full health.

Brock was thanked for his help in the contest and they were each given some money as thanks and rewards.

Nastina was arrested for purposeful endangerment of Pokémon.

Eventually, Ash teleported back to Vermilion City with his two companions and Pikachu, the others returning to their Pokéballs. They headed off towards Lavender Town.

"Why are we going there first? The place kind of creeps me out," Misty said with a shudder.

"The Saffron City gym is a Psychic-Type one, so I could say that I want a Ghost-Type for an advantage. Personally, I'm just looking for a friend I made there once. I promised that I'd come back for her once I started my journey. We should be there soon enough."

…..


	9. Chapter 9

A few days of training and travelling later, they arrived in Lavender Town.

"Your friend lives in there?" Misty asked dubiously.

"Yea. Come on," Ash said, leading them into the haunted tower.

The group entered into a dark and worn room. The door slammed shut behind them. Misty jumped.

"What was that!?" she screamed.

"Calm down, Misty. Everything is fine," Ash said soothingly. "Now, I don't mind, but do you mind if I let you down now?"

Misty got ahold of her bearings again, registering her position. She had her arms locked around and squeezing Ash's neck, while sitting bridal-style in his arms. She quickly dropped onto her own feet.

"Sorry about that," Misty said with a light blush.

"No problem. Hey, you can stop with the pranks! I'm back!" Ash shouted into the tower.

Misty and Brock looked at him strangely for a moment before the chandelier on the ceiling and torches around the room suddenly lit up with blue fire. Three figures phased into existence in front of them.

"Gastly, Haunter, Gengar! Hey, how have you been doing?"

" _Ash! You're finally back! I've missed you so much!"_ Haunter said happily, giving Ash an affectionate Lick.

His body locked up from paralysis. "Ash!" Misty shrieked.

"Bottom right pocket, yellow container," Ash stated.

Misty grabbed and applied the paralysis heal on Ash. Haunter laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head apologetically.

" _Welcome back Ash!"_ Gengar and Gastly said simultaneously. They materialized party poppers and set them off.

Ash smiled and unhooked his Pokéballs. "I'm sorry I won't be able to stay long guys, but I brought more friends for you to play with. Come on out!"

The five Pokéballs clicked open. The five Pokémon looked at the three Ghost-Types curiously.

" _Who are they, daddy?"_ Butterfree asked.

"They're friends that I made when I was younger, before I started my journey. Have some fun, why don't you?"

The five nodded and Pikachu jumped off his shoulder to join. Misty and Brock also released their own Pokémon, minus Misty's Pokémon that could only move around in water, leaving Misty, Brock, and Ash alone.

"How did you meet those three in the first place, Ash?" Brock asked.

"Knowing you, it probably wasn't a really fun first meeting," Misty quipped.

Ash nodded his head in agreement. "Oh, it wasn't fun at all. Actually, I died when I met them."

Brock and Misty stared at him. "What?" they said simultaneously.

"Yea. This was before I got far into my training and obviously before I become an official trainer. I'd wandered off from Lucario and mom during our little trip over here. I came to this tower and wandered around. Eventually, I came back into this main room and," Ash pointed at the chandelier, "that fell on top of me."

The two former gym leaders glanced at the object in question and shuddered.

"How are you still alive now?" Misty asked. She put a hand on his cheek automatically, eyes soft with concern. She blushed, realizing what she did, and retracted her hand.

Ash blushed as well, but then continued with the story. "After that, I blacked out for a while. I woke up staring into the face of Haunter and floating a foot or two above my body. They pulled my spirit out. I hovered around with them for a while, having fun, until Lucario darted in. I went back into my body quickly when I saw that and explained what had happened. Lucario wouldn't let me out of sight for days after that," Ash laughed. "I told those three about my dream of becoming a Pokémon Master when I grew up. Gengar and Gastly wanted to stay here, but Haunter said she'd join me."

Misty and Brock looked over to the group of Pokémon. They were all playing tag together happily. Gengar and Gastly enjoyed the new company while they could, while Haunter was absolutely beaming with the thought of traveling with Ash.

Brock and Ash started to cook for the night with the group deciding to head to Saffron in the morning.

Misty sat off to the side, staring off into the distance. " _Hey, Misty, are you ok?"_

She turned her head and saw Pikachu sitting in front of her, concern in his eyes. She smiled and picked him up, putting the mouse in her lap.

"Hey Pikachu. Did you come over here because you were worried for me?" she asked.

' _Right, we've been talking with Ash too much. Humans don't normally understand us. Better gesture more.'_ Pikachu nodded. _"What's wrong?"_ he asked, imitating a sorrowful person and shaking his head in frustration.

"Are you asking me what's wrong?"

Nod.

"Well, if I tell you, you need to promise not to tell anyone else, ok?"

Nod.

She looked over to Brock and Ash, making sure they were out of hearing range. "Ash is really great, isn't he? He treats all of you like his own family. Makes sure you're all comfortable, but trains you well and reasonably. Makes sure he takes care of you all as equally as he can."

" _Yea, he's my best friend and I'd go with him to the ends-of-the-earth! Everybody else would,"_ Pikachu agreed while nodding.

"…Do you think he'd go out with me?"

Pikachu fell straight onto the ground. Misty gasped and picked him up quickly.

"What, was it something I said?"

"Hey guys, it's time to eat!"

Misty's head snapped back to the group's direction. "Well, I guess we better get back over there. Remember your promise, Pikachu," she said with a threatening smile.

Pikachu nodded furiously. The malicious intent disappeared from her smile and the two walked back.

…..

 **A/N: Sabrina is like 18, instead of 21. Just a slight tweak, not really too important.**

" _Bye Ash, bye Haunter, have fun on your journey! It was nice meeting the rest of you!"_ Gengar and Gastly shouted, waving their hands.

Everybody waved goodbye before returning to their Pokéballs. Haunter remained outside of the Pokéball, floating around and getting used to be outside of the tower.

It was around four o'clock in the afternoon. After waking up at around six in the morning, Ash and Haunter worked on battling together and reviewing the moves that Haunter had worked on while he'd been gone. She hadn't been idle in waiting for him.

Butterfree had returned to the Pokémon Ranch, reasoning that she should let the others stay as she had been with Ash for the longest. Pikachu didn't count, since he was basically a part of Ash.

On the way to Saffron City, a presence entered Ash's mind. It wasn't Lucario.

' _Will you play with me…?'_ it said faintly. It sounded like a little girl.

' _Will you…help me?"_ an older voice said.

Ash reached out with his psychic senses and felt a powerful, but split, presence among many smaller forces. He continued walking towards the gym with nothing happening to his external expression.

As they found the entrance to the gym, a bearded man wearing a hat jogged over to them.

' _Well, this feels strangely familiar,'_ Ash thought.

"Hey, are you thinking about challenging that gym? I'd advise staying away from it if I were you." Before Ash could even respond, he jogged away.

"Why did he say that?" Misty asked.

Ash shrugged, knowing well-enough why he was being warned. They entered through the door and into a large and vacant hallway, lined with lighted pillars.

"Hello?" Ash called out.

They continued along the hallway.

"There's something creepy about this place," Misty commented.

As they kept walking, they passed a green door on the wall. Misty and Brock walked up to it. The people inside of the room were either holding spoons or holding up cards for their partner to divine.

Misty and Brock both glanced at Ash. "Are they practicing psychic powers?"

Ash shrugged. "Probably."

"What are you kids doing in here?"

A man with long hair and wearing a cough mask walked up.

"I came to challenge Sabrina for the Marsh Badge."

The man laughed. "You want to challenge the great Sabrina? How could you stand a chance? Behold, the powers that we hold!"

He took out a spoon and started concentrating fiercely on it. Moments passed as he began to make louder noises. His face started shifting through a few shades of red before the spoon finally bent. Slightly.

"You cannot control a Psychic-Type Pokémon perfectly without psychic powers!" he said haughtily. "And no ordinary trainer can beat a well-controlled Psychic-Type."

"Well, first of all, I'd much rather just become friends with my Pokémon than control them," Ash said holding up a finger. "Second of all, your psychic powers suck."

Ash's eyes glowed blue as he grabbed the spoon telekinetically and straightened it, bringing it over to his own hand. "Here, so you can save some money."

Brock, Misty, and Pikachu all chuckled. The man fumed, face turning red again.

"Before you strain yourself, could you lead us to Sabrina? I'd like to start the match."

The man growled and led them into Sabrina's room. It was a large room with columns lining the sides and two large torches on both sides of the blinds opposite of the entrance.

The man walked over and in front of the staircase.

"Oh, great Sabrina! These strangers have come to challenge you. Though, I don't know why you'd waste your time on these impudent brats!"

A doll of a small girl came into view as the blinds lifted and lifted its head. Misty recoiled in fear when its eyes glowed red. A blue aura surrounded the man.

"No, please, forgive me!"

Ash quickly raised his hand. The field broke and the man ran out screaming.

"My name is Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town. I'd like to challenge you for the Marsh Badge."

" _Sure, I'd love to battle with you! But, if you lose, you have to be my friends and play with me!"_ the little girl said.

Ash nodded. "Of course. I'd like to be your friend even if I win, however."

Silence remained for a few moments before the blinds lifted completely. The back room lit up, revealing an attractive young woman with dark green hair, blue eyes, and a blank expression.

"I will…hold you to those words. Let's play."

The doors slammed shut. Sabrina floated off of her chair and onto the trainer platform, the lights fully coming on for the room.

"One on one. All out match. Do you agree?'

Ash nodded. "Yes."

The Pokéball held within her doll's hands floated up. "Come out, Abra." It snapped open and materialized the little Psychic Pokémon onto the field.

"Time to play, Haunter." A Pokéball on his belt snapped open, depositing the Ghost-Type across from Abra.

" _Oh, our first battle! This will be fun~!"_ Haunter exclaimed.

"A Ghost-Type…a smart choice. It will not be that simple."

"Haunter, Nightshade!"

Two dark crimson beam, outlined in purple, shot from Haunter's eyes and towards the smaller Pokémon. Sabrina and Abra's eyes both glowed red and Abra dodged with a quick Teleport. Immediately after reaching his destination, Abra evolved into Kadabra.

Sabrina knew she wouldn't accomplish anything by playing passively in this match-up.

"Kadabra, Confusion."

Haunter found herself outlined in blue energy. " _Well, this'll be a new experience."_ Kadabra slammed Haunter into the ground. She screamed out in pain, the Psychic-Type move being super effective against her. " _Ok, those hurt, don't get hit by them!"_

"Alright Haunter, Payback!"

Haunter phased out of sight and next to Kadabra, slamming a dark-enhanced fist into him. Kadabra cried it in pain and fell to the floor.

"Shadow Ball. No need to overpower it." Haunter nodded and tossed the ball at the still-recovering Kadabra. It exploded against him and he collapsed on the ground, fainted.

Sabrina nodded in acknowledgement. "Good work, Kadabra. Return."

"Nice work, Haunter. I knew you could do it!" Ash said happily, rubbing her head. Haunter smiled and floated around happily.

Sabrina floated up from her trainer platform, coming over to Ash. "You have defeated me. The Marsh Badge is yours." The badge floated out of one of her pockets and into Ash's hand.

He clipped the badge next to his others. "You're really pretty, Sabrina. That blank expression doesn't fit you." Ash glanced at Haunter.

" _You know, you're right Ash! I think she'd look nice with a smile or a laugh!"_ Haunter exclaimed. A light bulb showed up on her head. " _Oh, I know!"_

She floated in front of a rather confused, but still blank, Sabrina. She pulled her face and stretched it a few directions, letting her tongue dangle out as she made funny faces. She even licked her own face and detached her eyes, attaching them to her tongue and wiggling it. Sabrina's mouth twitched for a moment.

" _Not enough, huh? Fine, take this on for size!"_

Haunter pulled a bomb with a red skull and bones on it. The fuse was burning away quickly. Misty, Brock, and the bearded man from outside, who had entered during the match, gasped in shock.

Haunter's grin stayed on her face the entire time. Sabrina's mouth was slightly open in apprehension. The bomb exploded lightly, covering both of them in smoke and leaving some small black marks on their bodies and clothes.

Sabrina's mouth twitched again, dangerously close to actually forming a non-neutral expression.

Haunter put her hands to her non-existent hips. " _Ok, fine. I'm gonna have to bring out my secret weapon! The one thing that never fails to make me smile!"_

Haunter quickly enlarged her claws and placed them behind both Ash and Sabrina. She swung inwards, pushing the two together suddenly.

*CLONK!*

Ash and Sabrina's heads recoiled backwards and both fell on their butts to the ground after they smacked into each other, courtesy of Haunter.

" _Hahaha! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that!"_ Haunter giggled. " _It was supposed to be a hug!"_

Sabrina and Ash both rubbed their foreheads in pain, glancing at each other. Ash stood up and walked over to her. He offered her a hand and smiled questioningly at her.

Sabrina stared at Ash with her cold eyes for a few moments. She smiled and started to laugh. Her eyes softened immensely. And she took Ash's hand.

"She smiled…" the bearded man whispered.

Ash pulled her up, overdoing it slightly and pulling her into his arms. He backed off quickly.

"Sorry about that, Sabrina."

She waved it off, still smiling.

"I don't mind, Ash. Not in the least," she said coyly.

' _Wow, talk about changing personalities,'_ everybody thought. Misty fumed slightly.

"I'm glad I could help, Sabrina. Getting disconnected like that is usually never a fun thing," Ash said, shuddering slightly.

The Psychic raised an eyebrow. "You have experienced it before? You seem to be too well in control of your emotions for it to happen to you."

"Mine was rather unique in terms of the phenomenon, but I've experienced it before."

Sabrina nodded.

"Regardless, you saved me from an unsavory situation. I will be forever indebted to you, Ash. I'd also like to give you a reward," she said with a smirk.

"What kind of-"

Sabrina leaned in and kissed Ash on the cheek, keeping contact for a second or two. Ash's entire face filled with blood.

She leaned back and smiled coyly. "Rather innocent for somebody with such a generally mature mind."

Brock cried tears of manly pride for his friend. Misty fumed even more than she did previously. Sabrina glanced at the orange-haired girl and smirked.

"Would you mind staying in Saffron City for the night? I have something I would like to request of you, but I must take care of some other things first," Sabrina stated.

Ash nodded, still recovering from the sudden 'reward.' "That's fine. We're not really in a hurry."

"Of course. Would you please leave with your male friend and the bearded gentleman for a moment? I'd like ask your other friend something."

Ash glanced at Misty, who nodded in reply. "Alright then. Bye Sabrina."

Ash left the room with Brock and the strange man from earlier in the day, leaving Misty with Sabrina.

…..

"I'll…keep it in mind," Misty said hesitantly.

"Please do so. If you would be so kind as to send in the bearded man as you leave, I would very much appreciate it," Sabrina stated.

Misty nodded and regrouped with her friends. They left for the Pokémon Center to stay the night.

The next morning, they returned to the gym. Sabrina greeted them pleasantly at the entrance, hugging Ash on sight. She asked him to do a quick trade with her so they could evolve their Haunter and Kadabra respectively. Ash agreed to do so.

After Sabrina and Ash exchanged numbers and the group ate a nice meal with the gym leader and her mother and father, they departed Saffron City.

On their way to Celadon City, they came across a Mankey that tried to steal Ash's hat. He didn't take kindly to take and fought back personally. Eventually, the monkey even evolved into a Primeape, but still lost to Ash. He then proceeded to bow down to Ash and ask to become his disciple. Ash palmed his face, but caught the fighting monkey, telling him that he would be able to train under his own master.

…..

"Is that…perfume?" Ash asked, sniffing the air.

Misty's eyes sparkled happily. "Can we go check it out? It smells really nice!"

Ash shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

They walked off, located, and entered the store in question. The three clerks came to attention and stopped their gossip.

"Welcome! How may we help you today?" they asked with a smile.

"Could I have a sample of your perfumes?"

"Of course, right this way!"

Misty walked over to the bench to take a seat. Pikachu jumped off his shoulder to join her.

" _Do you mind if go with her? I'm kind of curious,"_ Pikachu said with sparkling eyes.

"You don't need to ask me for permission, buddy," Ash said with a smile.

Ash went off to browse the merchandise alone. He picked up a bottle and uncapped it, sniffing the pleasant aroma. He realized what was familiar about the scent.

"Oh, it's made with Gloom essence…that's cool. Lush and vivid smell. I wonder if they use real flowers as well. Lily of the valley, wisteria… Ah, there's rose," he murmured to himself.

"It's nice to see a person with an understanding of flora," a woman said from behind him. He turned to see a woman dressed in a kimono and styled hair. "Are you interested in purchasing anything?"

"No, I'm sorry, I just came here with my friends."

"Ah, what a shame. My name is Erika, the manager of this perfumery," she said pleasantly. She bowed in greeting and Ash returned the gesture.

"My name is Ash Ketchum. Are you the same Erika that's the gym leader of Celadon City?"

"One and the same."

Ash nodded. "Well, I would like to challenge you to a battle whenever you're available."

"It would be fine to go now," Erika said with a smile.

…..

 **A/N: (New) Hey, unfortunately, for those of you guys very much enjoying this story, I only have two more chapters of this stored up. I may return to this project in the future, but for now, my efforts are devoted to Harry Potter: Divergent Paths.**


	10. Chapter 10

"You know, I think you look better without all of the makeup and extra stuff. Your blue hair is much prettier than the wig."

"My, quite the charmer, aren't you?" Erika said.

Ash shrugged. "I say it as I see it. Let's get started. Pidgeotto, battle stance!"

"Well, this may be a problem. Tangela, your turn! Stun Spore!"

The cloud of yellow spores shot towards Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto evaded easily enough, having practiced dodging the move, not only by itself, but boosted by a Gust as well.

"Air Cutter, Pidgeotto!"

Erika smirked. "Tangela, Shock Wave!"

The yellow bolt of lightning shot from Tangela's vines, speeding towards Pidgeotto and ready to chase if necessary. It dispersed the blades of wind easily.

"Well, you can't dodge that one, but," Ash smirked, "Steel Wing and redirect!"

Pidgeotto's wings glowed silver and he aligned himself vertically, stabbing a wing into the ground. The electricity stuck him and he grunted, but soon enough the energy drained into the ground.

"What?!" Erika shouted in surprise.

"Finish it! Air Slash, Pidgeotto!"

He flapped his wings furiously and threw a flurry of wind razor blades. They slammed into Tangela, knocking it out. Pidgeotto cried out in victory, a glow engulfing his body as he evolved.

" _Alright! About time!"_ he shouted, flapping his now larger wings strongly.

" _Congratulations, Pidgeot!"_ Ash's other Pokémon shouted. Charmeleon, Ivysaur, and Wartortle were pumped up. Gengar and Pidgeot were in their final evolutionary states now. They'd also heard that Krabby had been training hard and evolved into a Kingler. They were all eager to evolve as well and just needed a good battle.

"Great job, buddy. Take a break. Pikachu, you're up for the next two," he called to his best friend.

" _What, really? Awesome! It's been a while,"_ Pikachu said, eager to fight.

The other Pokémon just shook their heads. Pikachu didn't get used too much in trainer battles. He was simply too strong for most trainers. Pikachu could still take any four of them on in a fight if both he and Ash were serious.

"I'd lecture you on the effectiveness of Electric-Types against Grass-Types, but I imagine that doesn't apply to you. Victreebel, your turn!"

"We'll make the first move. Pikachu, Agility and Double Team!"

Erika groaned as the mouse Pokémon set off into movement. He immediately flickered out of vision, leaving after-images with his speed. The effect of Double Team got even more confusing to Victreebel as even the body doubles were moving at high speeds.

"We need to decrease his mobility! Victreebel, Acid!"

The purple liquid splotched over the field, trying to cut off Pikachu as he moved.

"No point in playing games, Electro Ball!"

"We need to inflict some damage! Leaf Tornado!"

The area filled with yellow orbs simultaneously tossed at Victreebel. He quickly whirled up a tornado of leaves to try to hit Pikachu. Direct hit. The giant plant fainted from the immense explosion and pain from the high-speed electric ball slamming into him.

Pikachu clicked his teeth as a few leaves cut him, but didn't sustain major damage. He returned to Ash and prepared for the next battle.

Erika nodded. "Good job, Victreebel. Alright then, the last battle. It's up to you, Gloom! Stun Spore and Sleep Spore all around!"

The Weed Pokémon shook its head and clouds of green and yellow erupted onto the field, locking up the area.

"Now, Sludge Bomb!"

"Light Screen, Pikachu!" A dazzling rainbow-colored wall came into existence in front of Pikachu, stopping the poison projectile.

"Pikachu, Iron Tail and Quick Attack!"

He quickly dashed into melee range in a second and slammed his glowing tail into Gloom, knocking it into the ground.

"Return, Gloom. You did well," she said, recalling her favorite Pokémon. "Well, it was a good battle, Ash," Erika said with a smile, walking over to the trainer. "Here is your Rainbow Badge."

Ash took it with a thankful nod and clipped it next to the rest. "Just three more now. Thank you for the battle, Erica. Do you mind if I use your field for something?"

The bluenette shook her head, "No, go ahead."

Misty and Brock tilted their heads. "What are you doing, Ash?" Misty asked.

"Battling exercise. Gengar, Pidgeot, join Pikachu please. Charmeleon, Ivysaur, Wartortle, on the other side with me."

The Pokémon all glanced at each other and nodded. They took their positions.

"Gengar, Pidgeot, Pikachu, attack freely. I'll be aiding the other three mentally." The trio nodded. "Charmeleon vs. Pikachu, Gengar vs. Wartortle, Pidgeot vs. Ivysaur."

"Mentally?" Erika asked, the rest of her assistants also curious.

Brock nodded. "He doesn't use it much, but he can also connect to his Pokémon telekinetically, like Sabrina. That way he can relay orders without delay."

"Why doesn't he use that tactic in official battles?" Erika asked.

"Ash is just too nice," Misty stated. "Unless he absolutely needs to, he considers it unfair."

Pikachu immediately jumped into action, starting off with a Quick Attack. Charmeleon's eyes glowed red with Scary Face, slightly intimidating Pikachu and decreasing the mouse's speed. He used Fire Spin on himself, becoming engulfed in a tornado of flame and blocking Pikachu from getting close to him.

Pikachu dug into the ground and Charmeleon immediately jumped after him, throwing a Flamethrower into the whole. Pikachu quickly re-emerged, dodging the erupting flames and flickered out of vision. He generated an Electro Ball and tossed it at Charmeleon. Charmeleon launched a Dragon Pulse to counter, but took an Iron Tail to the back as Pikachu made use of the window of vulnerability, planting the lizard into the ground.

Gengar launched a Shadow Ball at her opponent, colliding with a counter Water Pulse. Wartortle retreated into his shell and used Aqua Jet to ram into Gengar. She winded her fist back and slammed a Thunder Punch right into Wartortle, knocking him back. Electricity crackled over Wartortle's body. Paralysis had been inflicted.

He opened his mouth and shot a stream of boiling water at Gengar, who dodged easily enough. She floated in front of and held her arms apart. Two red orbs appeared. She merged the two orbs and shot a red beam at Wartortle from the orb. He fell asleep. Gengar stood back and a shadow version stepped out and flew through Wartortle. He cried out in pain.

Ivysaur rolled to the side as Air Cutters rained down towards him. He suddenly stopped and erected a Light Screen to stop the barrage, launching a Razor Leaf attack to throw Pidgeot off. The large bird maneuver out of the way and sent a large Gust towards Ivysaur. Ivysaur used his vines to ground himself and gritted his teeth.

His bulb opened up and shot a beam of energy into the sky, intensifying the sunlight. Ivysaur quickly charged a Solar Beam and shot it at Pidgeot. The bird daringly flew directly towards the attack before spinning, narrowly evading the attack. He slammed a Wing Attack into Ivysaur's face and planted him into the ground.

"Dear Arceus…his Pokémon are all that strong?" Erika said in awe. It was rather spectacular. "They move flawlessly as well…I see that verbal commands are more of a handicap for them…"

Misty and Brock nodded, but three sights drew their attention back to the field. All three starter Pokémon were finally evolving now. Ash was grinning madly.

Charizard, Venusaur, and Blastoise emerged from their various positions with loud roars of joy. " _Alright! We did it!"_ they shouted simultaneously. They turned towards each other and grinned.

" _Dude, you've got wings! That's awesome!"_ Venusaur shouted.

" _Look at Venusaur! He's got a flower on his back!"_ Charizard laughed.

" _Really mature, Charizard. Nice cannons, Blastoise,"_ Venusaur smirked.

"Alright guys, let's finish this up with a bang!" Ash shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

Pidgeotto charged a Hyper Beam from his mouth.

Pikachu charged up, an aura of electricity readying for a Thunder.

Gengar generated a Shadow Ball in both hands.

Charizard took a deep breath and got ready for a Fire Blast.

Blastoise readied his cannons for two Water Pulses.

Venusaur charged another Solar Beam.

Brock, Misty, and Erika's eyes widened as they ducked. The moves shot and collided in the middle of the field, resulting in a large boom. Ash laughed loudly, clapping at the spectacle.

…..

Ash, Misty, and Brock departed from Celadon City a few days later. Ash had spent some time helping Erika and her employees with taking care of the Pokémon at the gym in apology for the commotion he had caused. They left on good terms.

Ash detected a large psychic presence in one of the towns and decided to investigate. They found that children had been missing for a few days now. Ash located the psychic signal and found out that a group of people were using Hypno as a solution to their insomnia. Ash scolded them all and asked the Drowzee to cancel out Hypno's effects on the Pokémon in the Pokémon Center and the children, who had been affected into believing they were Pokémon. With that problem solved, the group left the town. A Psyduck followed them out and Misty hesitated with catching it, but Ash convinced her to bring it along, promising to help her train it.

Brock found his own inspiration along the way when they met a famous Pokémon breeder named Suzy. She noticed the healthy state of the group's Pokémon and was impressed with Ash and Brock's food-making abilities. They had a long discussion over Pokémon care while Misty listened intently. Ash and Brock both got along splendidly with her Vulpix, which she was surprised by, even more so when she learned Ash's ability to communicate with Pokémon. Brock asked to become her apprentice in Pokémon breeding, but she stated that she still had much to learn.

"Your friend Ash is a good example of knowledge that I have yet to become aware of," Suzy stated. "I might be famous for my own success in releasing a Pokémon's inner beauty and keeping them healthy, I didn't know that you could use berries in such ways to stimulate them further. You both have actually taught me a lot."

After that, Suzy decided she was going to close her salon and travel around more. She asked Brock and Ash to take care of her Vulpix, seeing how the vixen actually liked them, but Ash declined the offer.

"Like you've said before, close personal relationships are the most important thing in raising a Pokémon, Suzy. I think Vulpix would grow the best with you, Suzy."

Suzy had her mouth slightly open in surprise, but it changed to a smile. "…You're right, Ash. Thank you both. Good luck on your journey!"

The group departed soon enough, though Brock was slightly regretful at not getting the apprenticeship he wanted.

"Don't mind it, Brock. I'm sure you'll still become a brilliant breeder without a teacher to guide you. I know you can do it."

Brock cheered up with those words. They resumed their journey to Fuchsia City. Pidgeot swapped out with Kingler, happy to go see Fearow again.

They eventually reached Gringey City. The city was dark and gloomy, with all of the lights off. After some wandering around, they found out that some Grimer and a Muk overran the power plant. The gang went off to help with the situation, eventually finding some of the employees and helping them drive off the hordes of Pokémon, redirecting the swarms of Pokémon to a different place to occupy. Ash found the Muk and caught it, sending it back to the Ranch.

' _I should probably call about that soon,'_ Ash thought, feeling sorry for Professor Oak and the former Rocket trio.

Misty, Brock, and Ash encountered a small incident concerning construction on the home of some Diglett and Dugtrio, which was solved promptly with Ash's ability to just talk to them and find the problem. Construction was cancelled when the workers found out that they were building on the Pokémon's homes. On the bright side, the various trainers that were initially hired to guard the site were good battle partners for Brock and Misty.

Horsea evolved to Seadra and Geodude to Graveler. Psyduck was actually performing much better than Misty expected, which she apologized for. Ash spent a lot of time with Psyduck inside of his mind and eventually solved his constant headache problem. He had immense psychic potential, but the same potential caused the ambient head pain that he felt and was only released when he went over the pain threshold.

Upon reaching Fuchsia City, Ash was interested upon hearing some rumors about the style of gym. They headed to the outskirts of Fuchsia City to find the gym. The Ninja Mansion.

"Hello, is anyone here?" Ash called out.

Misty leaned against the wall, only to fall into a secret room. "Ow!"

Ash turned to see the regular-looking wall. He raised an eyebrow and pushed it open, rotating the secret door open. "Interesting…I guess that's why they called this the Ninja Mansion."

A Venonat walked out from the back of the room. " _Hello!"_

"Hi there. Do you happen to know where the gym leader is?"

It nodded, ran past the trio, out of the secret room, and into the hallway. " _This way!"_

Ash nodded and started to follow it deeper into the mansion. When it started running, the group jogged to catch up. Ash suddenly stopped and held the others back after they got a few steps in. He looked at the ground and stomped, sliding open a panel with a Voltorb in it.

"Well, that's kind of dangerous. Come on, let's keep going."

They walked up a staircase and looked around for the little bug Pokémon.

"Look, over there," Misty pointed. It was standing at the opposite side of the hallway.

Ash looked suspiciously at the long corridor. He walked forward slowly and his hands met a clear glass panel blocking the way. He looked back to the other two and walked past them, checking behind them.

"Looks like we're stuck in here for now," Ash said.

"We should try to get out of here. It might be some sort of trap," Brock said in concern.

Ash waved him off. "I don't feel any ill intent like that in this mansion…it seems to be more of a test."

" _Hey, this way!"_

Ash turned to see Venonat holding another secret turning door open for them. Ash looked back to the other two and they nodded, following him in.

He heard something whirring in the air. The trio saw a few projectiles flying towards them and Misty put her hands over her head and ducked. Ash quickly grabbed the objects out of mid-air, knocking away the lower down ones. He raised an eyebrow.

"Shuriken?" Ash tossed them at the ceiling. A figure dropped down quickly to dodge. "Those are dangerous, you know."

"Yet you seem to wield them just as easily as I. You're rather strange…" A woman with green, long hair and a pink kunoichi outfit on stood up from her crouched position. "Born in darkness, living in darkness, such is the fate of the ninja. I am Aya, the kunoichi."

"Isn't pink too bright of a color for a ninja?" Misty asked.

"I didn't ask for fashion advice," Aya snapped back. "Now then, I'd rather make fun of you for a clumsy attempt to get past our traps, but you passed perfectly."

A Voltorb rolled into the middle of the room and used Smokescreen, obscuring the room.

"You've still got a lot to learn, Aya." A man stood on the opposite side of the room, coming out of the smoke.

"I am sorry, honored brother. I have failed you," Aya said, taking a knee before the man.

Ash watched the new arrival with curiosity. _'Either standards for shinobi are poor or our shinobi were just plain strange,_ ' Ash thought to himself. "You must be Koga, the gym leader of Fuchsia City."

"Yes, I am. I assume that you are here to challenge me to a battle?" Koga asked.

"Of course. Is this the battleground that we will use?"

"That is correct. Shall we start? My Pokémon will be Venonat," Koga stated briskly, releasing his own bug Pokémon.

Ash nodded. "Alright then. Kingler, battle ready!"

The crab emerged from his Pokéball, a good foot taller than the usual size for his species. " _Hi Ash! Pleasure to be finally battling alongside you!"_ he said happily, clicking his claws.

Ash smiled and hugged the large crab. "I feel the same. I'm sorry for not bringing you out sooner, Kingler. I'm still trying to work out how to switch out Pokémon."

Kingler smiled with his eyes closed in understanding. _"Oh, we understand, don't worry about it! The first few Pokémon that a trainer catches in a region tend to be the ones that they are most comfortable with, which sadly leads to a majority of trainers under-using the rest of their Pokémon that are immediately sent to storage! However, even though we are left at the ranch, the others and I never feel under-used! You have Lucario training us, after all, and treat us well when we are taken!"_

Ash smiled back at the crab in thanks. "Looks like the Professor's been rubbing off on you. Intelligent and mellow as he is."

" _Yes, but we get all of our determination and kindness from you!_ "

"Right," Ash said. He turned back to Koga. "Sorry about that, just a little talk."

"I don't mind. Let's begin. A ninja should always strike first and use the element of surprise!"

As he said that, Venonat evolved into Venomoth. "Venomoth, Stun Spore!"

"Bubblebeam and disperse it. Follow with Mud Shot and ground him!"

The stream of bubbles broke apart the cloud of spores and a large glob of mud followed, smacking into Venomoth and putting him to the ground.

"Vice Grip!" Ash called out. Kingler dashed over with speed that seemed too fast for his size and gripped onto the moth, clamping his claws shut. Venomoth fainted from the pressure.

"Venomoth, return! Golbat, I choose you! Strike, with Wing Attack!"

"That won't be working very well. Kingler, Harden!"

Golbat's wings clanged against Kingler's armored body, not affecting the tough crab much.

"Golbat, Sludge Bomb!"

"Kingler, Rock Slide!"

The crab hurled suddenly materialized large boulders at Golbat, breaking the projectiles of sludge. The rocks rearranged themselves around the flying bat in a circular formation before coming together and slamming into Golbat. The bat fell to the ground with swirls in its eyes.

Koga walked over to Ash, a smile on his face. "A brilliant battle. Here," he said, opening up a scroll, "the Soul Badge." Ash took the heart-shaped badge.

"You have shown me that we have much to learn in the way of battling. Come Aya, we have more training to do!"

"Yes, brother!"

Ash and Misty waved goodbye, dragging along Brock, who hadn't had the chance to hit on Aya. They left for Cinnabar Island.

…..

The group arrived on Cinnabar Island around two weeks later, having stopped by a lot of places to help with multiple small problems.

Along the way, they had obtained another egg to take care of. Misty held onto it since Ash already had his own. Eventually, the egg hatched into a Togepi, which marked Misty as her mother.

For some reason, they felt like they arrived on Cinnabar Island more quickly than they were supposed to.

After wandering around in the crowds of tourists for a long time, they came across a strange man. He was wearing circular black glasses and wearing a green bead necklace.

"These tourists have ruined the island!" he shouted energetically.

Ash raised an eyebrow and tapped the man's shoulder. "Hi, I was wondering, do you know where the Cinnabar Gym is?"

Ash felt a spike of emotion in the old man. "Well, it's-"

"You're the gym leader, aren't you? Blaine?"

The man's expression turned to shock. "How did you figure it out?"

"Well, I didn't know for sure until just now. I'm also a psychic, so when your emotions spiked abnormally when I mentioned looking for the gym, I figured you were the gym leader," Ash explained.

Blaine hung his head in defeat. "Oh, well, that stinks. I was hoping to lead you through a whole riddle path to the gym, but I guess we can just get right to the battle."

Blaine led the trio to the hot springs of an inn in the mountains. He pushed down the Gyarados statue on one side of the spring, opening a secret passage. They walked down the staircase and into a hot cave, the metal door in their way swinging open. They came into a battle arena hanging above a pit of lava, with two rock pillars on each side for you to walk onto the field.

Ash sweat dropped. "This is probably the most dangerous field I've ever seen for a battle."

Blaine just laughed and walked over to the opposite side, taking his place on the battlefield. "Don't mind it and come on! 3 on 3, let's go!"

Ash stepped onto his platform. "Blastoise, battle ready!"

"Ninetales, go! Fire-Type attacks won't work very well, so Extrasensory!"

Her eyes glowed golden and her tails started to whip around. She shot a rainbow-colored beam that was filled with crescents straight at Blastoise.

"Overpower it with a Hydro Pump!"

Blastoise's cannons primed and soon fired, launching the two ferocious jets of water right into the beam of psychic energy. The bursts of water broke through, slamming to Ninetales and drenching it with water. She fainted from the single hit.

"Return, Ninetales. For my next Pokémon, I choose Rhydon!"

"Come back, Blastoise. Venusaur, you're up!"

"Rhydon, take him out immediately with Horn Drill!"

"Don't give him a chance, Venusaur. Petal Dance!"

Pink petals flew out from Venusaur's flower and flew towards the charging Rhydon. Knowing that Rhydon didn't have any moves effective against Venusaur, Blaine went for a one-hit knockout and hoped Rhydon would be able to tank the damage. He was not. The large drill Pokémon collapsed to the ground, covered in petals.

"Return, Rhydon! Magmar, it's up to you!"

"Good job, Venusaur. Charizard, battle ready!"

The flame Pokémon moved into the arena, roaring a Flamethrower into the sky. " _I'm all fired up!"_

"Alright then. Show them why you're called the Spitfire Pokémon. Magmar, Fire Blast!"

"You won't lose to him in pure power, Charizard! Fire Blast, as well!"

Both Pokémon launched their Fire Blast simultaneously but when they collided, Charizard's attack consumed Magmar's and sped towards him.

"Dodge!"

Magmar rolled out of the way as the move exploded onto the ground.

"Dragon Dance, Charizard. Then, finish him off with Dragon Rush!"

Charizard quickly went through the motions for Dragon Dance before charging in. Blue light engulfed his body as he sped towards Magmar. The energy took on the shape of an intimidating dragon and slammed into Magmar full-force.

Blaine returned Magmar to his Pokéball and walked over to Ash. "Well, congratulations Ash. I'd give you a riddle, but I don't think you'd like that very much. Here's your Volcano Badge! You've earned it!"

"Thank you Blaine," Ash said, bowing in gratitude. "We'll be leaving now, I need to get to Viridian City."

Blaine nodded and the trio left immediately.

…..

 **A/N: That's the end of my completed chapters for Dimensions. I'm not sure when I'll be able to return to this story, but when I do, I'll notify you guys somehow. For now, this is discontinued and Harry Potter: Divergent Paths is my main project.**


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